Armed North Branch woman fatally shot by police had struggled with mental illness, husband says

A woman who was shot to death by police last week in North Branch, Minn., had struggled with alcohol and mental illness, her husband said Saturday.

Jamie Ann Crabtree, 36, was killed Thursday night during an encounter with officers in a field near their home in the 38900 block of 3rd Avenue, Nicholas Williams told the Star Tribune.

North Branch police said Crabtree was armed with a handgun, intoxicated and suicidal when officers confronted her. One officer struck Crabtree with a nonlethal pepper ball before a second officer shot her with his firearm, according to police. She died at the scene.

As of Saturday morning, police had not said why the officers fired at the woman. Police Chief Dan Meyer said police-worn body cameras recorded the incident and that the officers have been put on administrative leave.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was leading the investigation into the shooting, which is standard practice, and is expected to reveal further details in the coming days.

Williams said he called 911 when his wife, after drinking heavily, left their home with a bottle of alcohol and a handgun in a case. He told an emergency dispatch operator that “suicide by cop” was among the comments she made at the time.

Williams said he followed his wife as she walked south toward Hwy. 95. When a police vehicle arrived, he said, he told the officer she had a gun.

“About three minutes later, there were a dozen shots,” he said.

Crabtree was shot while in a one-square-block open field north of the highway.

“I started to walk toward her in the field, but [officers] screamed at me to get back,” Williams said. “I said, ‘No, I’m the husband. She needs help.’ ”

Even so, Williams said, he was kept away from his wounded wife.

He said officers repeatedly commanded Crabtree to roll away from the gun, even though she was “lifeless on the ground.” He said 17 minutes passed before any of the officers went to her aid.

“I believe the cops did the wrong thing” by waiting so long, said Williams, who took cellphone video of the more than 30 minutes that followed the shooting.

He said his wife suffered seizures when she drank and had been in therapy for mental illness.

“They knew she was mentally ill,” Williams said of the police. “They’ve picked her up five times over the past three years or so. ... I was trying to be patient and help her out.”

Crabtree worked as a personal care attendant and “was on the phone with her favorite client when she got shot,” Williams said. “She was begging for help.”

Since 2000, police in Minnesota have killed at least 240 people, including nine this year and 11 in the past 11 months, according to a Star Tribune database.

Williams said the family “cycled though so many animals” in the home where they were raising two children, ages 11 and 6. He listed among them ducks, rabbits, cats, chickens, fish, a hamster and rats.

Sister-in-law Sarah Clifford, who started a GoFundMe page to help the family with expenses related to Crabtree’s death, posted that “she loved her family, her friends and had such a big heart for animals.”

Star Tribune staff writer Jeff Hargarten contributed to this report.