February 15, 2022, Marks the “Miles Hall Day of Remembrance” Miles’ 26th Birthday Celebration and Community Bike Give-Away Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors has once again declared February 15th, the “Miles Hall Day of Remembrance”. Again this year, in honor of would have been Miles’ 26th birthday, the Miles Hall Foundation, in partnership with NAMI Contra Costa, will be holding a celebration and giving away new bicycles to children in the community through our partners, Hope Solutions and The Power Church in Brentwood.

The event is open to the media (not the general public).

Where: Garden Apartments – Commons Area - 2387 Lisa Lane, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

When: 4 PM on Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Who: Children and parents receiving the donated bikes, staff and volunteers from

The Miles Hall Foundation, NAMI Contra Costa, Hope Solutions, The Power Church

What: The Miles Hall Foundation purchased 16 new bicycles that will be given to children aged 3 to 14 years old via Hope Solutions. In addition to the bikes, NAMI Contra Costa is

partnering with The Miles Hall Foundation to provide pizza, cupcakes, and gift cards to

purchase bike helmets for each child. Pastor Chris Williams from The Power Church in

Brentwood will be offering a prayer to honor Miles and encourage reflection on and

remembrance by all in the community.

Please consider a $26 one-time or monthly donation to Miles' Foundation to honor and celebrate his birthday! Donations are tax-deductible and support our mission.

Make Your Gift To The Miles Hall Foundation

African American Mental Health Awareness Week

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors have proclaimed February 13-19, 2022,

as acknowledgement of African American Mental Health Awareness Week and

February 15, 2021 as the Miles Hall Day of Remembrance.

About The Miles Hall Foundation: The Mission of The Miles Hall Foundation is to support families by educating communities about mental illness and protecting those impacted with mental illness from excessive use of force by law enforcement.

Since the death of their son Miles in June of 2019, the Hall family, along with their friends,

supporters, and partners has worked tirelessly to advocate for non-police response to calls for help when someone is in a mental health emergency. Currently, the “Miles Hall Lifeline Act”, Assembly Bill 988 is making its way through the California legislature to fund an alternative to 911 for calls for help that do not need a police response.

The Miles Hall Foundation works to advocate for equitable and compassionate support for those living with mental illness, to educate communities about mental illness and reduce the stigma associated with mental health, and to prevent harm caused by inappropriate responses to those in mental health crisis situations, with a special emphasis on members of BIPOC communities.

For more information about The Miles Hall Foundation, go to our Linkt.ree

https://linktr.ee/justiceformileshall

For more information about our partners, please visit their sites.

• NAMI Contra Costa

• Hope Solutions

• The Power Church

- Jul 10, 2021

Hall Family Letter to AG Rob Bonta

Updated: Jul 7, 2023

July 9, 2021

California State Attorney General

450 Golden Gate Ave., Ste 11000

San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear Attorney General Bonta:

We are writing to request that you review the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s recent decision not to charge officers in the killing of our son, Miles Hall in Walnut Creek, CA on June 2, 2019.

On June 2, 2019, Walnut Creek police officers responded to a call regarding our son, who was in the throes of a delusional episode, a symptom of the schizoaffective disorder from which he suffered. The Walnut Creek Police Department (WCPD) was aware that Miles suffered from a mental illness and had responded to similar calls for support in the past, without incident.

In the past, the WCPD had engaged Miles effectively and humanely, assigning him a resource officer, Officer Keagy, and facilitating his receipt of treatment by transporting him to local mental health agencies. In sum, our family had reason to expect that the WCPD police officers who would interact with Miles on June 2, 2019, would act in a manner befitting a scene involving a young man known to suffer from mental illness who was in distress and not threatening anyone.

What unfolded was the antithesis of what our family expected and of what is required by law. When the WCPD arrived on the scene, they chose to escalate the situation, yelling at Miles and pointing lethal weapons at him. Miles was holding a garden tool close to his body and ran past the officers, veering away from them, rather than at them. He neither wielded the garden tool nor made any movements with the tool that were threatening.

The video footage makes clear the fact that Miles' singular objective was to get away from the officers. In fact, the first officer who fired, Officer Melissa Murphy, had to rotate clockwise to her right approximately 90 degrees to shoot Miles as he ran past her. Officer KC Hsiao, who fired next, had to do the same.

There was no one in the area that Miles was running toward, and Miles posed no significant threat of imminent harm to anyone. He was running toward his home, attempting to pass the officers whose drawn weapons and aggressive, loud voices frightened him.

Officer Murphy chose to fire her gun just as Officer Smith first began to discharge bean bag rounds at Miles; in fact, she did so almost instantaneously, seconds after bean bags were first deployed. She ignored her assignment to use a Taser “as appropriate”, choosing instead to end the life of a young man in distress. Miles attempted to run past officers while he felt both the effects of his mental illness—confusion, disorientation, delusion — and the overwhelming and traumatic impact of four officers yelling his name and pointing guns at him.

The officers’ response was untenable in myriad ways. Sergeant Connors’ assertion to her team that she wouldn’t “give this guy a lot of chances” is shocking to the conscience. Sgt. Connors set a tone of wanton disregard for Miles’ life from the inception of the officers’ arrival at the scene. The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office ‘s investigative report clearly states that Officer Murphy was assigned a Taser during this incident, yet it defends her firing her gun at Miles a mere two seconds after bean bags were first fired. Only Mental Health Resource Officer Tammy Keagy, who rushed to the scene as gunshots were deployed, had a Taser in her hand that day.

Of note, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s investigative report appears to rely on interviews conducted during former lead investigator Barry Grove’s tenure, despite his removal from the case. Given Mr. Grove’s history of racially insensitive perspectives and racially charged statements, this fact alone is cause for concern. See the following East Bay Express article for more information: https://eastbayexpress.com/coco-county-das-facebook-posts-suggest-bias-1

In fact, we are joined by multiple community organizations and innumerable community members from across the Bay Area and beyond, that are deeply troubled by this case. Miles' case has inspired a statewide bill, AB 988, The Miles Hall Lifeline Act, that will establish a phone number that people in crisis can call, rather than calling 911.

It has also spurred the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to commit to constructing a crisis response system that will deploy mental health care experts, rather than police officers, to those in need of care-- called The Miles Hall Community Crisis Hub. Miles' death at the hands of officers has inspired significant change for the community, but it has not yet resulted in an objective and thorough review of the case that is at the heart of the discourse.

In sum, our son was killed while he was at his most vulnerable and was threatening nobody. We feel strongly that the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s report was an abuse of the Office’s discretion in that it sanctions a killing that was unjustified and reckless. We strongly urge you to examine this case and give it the objective review that it should command.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please reply to us at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Taun and Scott Hall

Miles’ parents and founders of The Miles Hall Foundation

cc: Friends of Scott, Alexis and Taun Hall (FOSATH) and our partner, NAMI Contra Costa

Please Sign the Petition To Show Your Support!

- May 6, 2021

Hall Family Statement RE: Contra Costa DA Investigation & Report

Updated: Jul 7, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Friday, May 7, 2021

Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office Releases Investigation Report. Doesn’t Criminally Charge Police Officers In the Death of Miles Hall, Killed by Walnut Creek Police June 2, 2019

Walnut Creek CA---

Official statement from the family of Miles Hall

To say that we are disappointed in the Contra Costa County District Attorney's investigation and decision not to charge any of the police officers in the killing of our son is an understatement. These officers were back on the streets of Walnut Creek just 12 days after they shot our son Miles a block from our home. Today we learned that they will remain there without consequences for their actions.

Every day since June 2, 2019, our lives have been consumed with trying to prevent another family from experiencing the same heartbreak of seeing their loved one in crisis, needing help, and instead of receiving care, being violently taken from them by the very people called to help.

After nearly two long years of waiting anxiously for the conclusion of what we had hoped would be a thorough, unbiased, factually accurate investigation, we learned that there will be no justice and no accountability for the indefensible actions that resulted in our son’s death -- at least not today.

The officers who shot and killed our son, Miles Hall, acted recklessly and should have been criminally charged. The officers' wildly distorted depictions of the incident that took Miles' life directly contradict the record established by officers' own body cameras and other video footage, as well as by eyewitness accounts. Anyone looking at the evidence knows the truth.

Miles posed no threat to officers as he attempted to run to the safety of his home. The officers fired lethal weapons with wanton disregard for his life. They flouted their responsibility to de-escalate at the scene. They escalated to gunfire within moments instead of following their department’s own protocols for interactions with people in a mental health crisis.

We know that Miles' dual status as a young man in the throes of a mental health crisis and as a Black man made him particularly vulnerable to police violence. Miles needed care and compassion that day; instead he was met with lethal force. Not holding the police accountable for misconduct, especially when that misconduct results in someone's death, makes us ALL less safe.

We are heartbroken, yet still determined to fight for justice for Miles and for everyone who has been harmed by police brutality and denied justice in a system that stigmatizes and criminalizes people with mental illness, especially when they are Black and Brown.

We want everyone to know that we created The Miles Hall Foundation to turn our personal pain into greater purpose. In partnership with community organizations such as NAMI Contra Costa and local leaders, The Miles Hall Foundation is committed to supporting and protecting families by educating communities about mental illness and protecting those impacted with mental illness from excessive use of force by law enforcement.

While today is a somber day for our family and for our community of supporters, and we greatly miss our beloved son, Miles is inspiring us to push forward with this life-saving work.

We will be asking the California Attorney General and the Department of Justice to review this case for criminal prosecution.

We can’t stop and we won’t ever stop saying his name – Miles Hall!

Since Miles death in June of 2019, the Hall family has worked tirelessly to advocate for non-police response to calls for help when someone is in a mental health emergency. Currently, the “Miles Hall Lifeline Act” - Assembly Bill 988 is making its way through the California legislature to fund an alternative to 911 for calls for help that do not need a police response. The #MilesHallLifelineAct #AB988 will save lives and decriminalize individuals who need help, not handcuffs.

With today’s decision not to charge the officers who killed Miles with a crime, the Contra Costa County DA’s office has reinforced the dangerous and stigmatizing misperception that those living with mental illness, especially if they are people of color, are the criminals and that violence and gun fire are appropriate responses to their calls for help. That is wrong and runs counter to facts.

The Hall family is calling on the California Attorney General and the US Department of Justice to do their own investigation into the killing of Miles Hall. Miles should be alive today. The Contra Costa DA’s report is inaccurate, inadequate, and is not what justice looks like. CALL TO ACTION: please call and write to the Contra Costa DA and the California AG to express your outrage that nearly two years after the killing of Miles Hall, the investigation into his killing by Walnut Creek police resulted in nothing that will hold these officers accountable.

Our streets are less safe today because no one has been held accountable for Miles’ death. That can not stand.

Say his name! Miles Hall!

Contra Costa District Attorney

Diana Becton

Phone: 925-957-2200

Email DA@contracostada.org

Mailing Address:

900 Ward St, Martinez, CA 94553

Office of the Attorney General Rob Bonta

1300 "I" Street. Sacramento, CA 95814-2919.

Phone: (916) 445-9555 or (916) 210-6276

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