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Nevada County Sheriff 'Mobile Crisis Team' Not On Duty At Time Of Deadly Deputy Shooting

NEVADA COUNTY (CBS13) — Dash camera video released by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office shows a mother in a mental health breakdown shot and killed after she allegedly charged at a deputy.

The incident unfolded while her 4 and 6-year-old daughters watched.

The shooting comes months after the sheriff's office added a "mobile crisis team," pairing a therapist and a deputy together to help de-escalate mental health calls just like this one.

RELATED: Nevada County Sheriff To Pair Therapists With Deputies On Mental Health Calls

The video shows a deputy approach a distraught Sage Crawford.

"You're not in trouble or anything like that," the deputy said.

Crawford, armed with a knife, can be seen on the video screaming at deputies not to touch her children. At one point her 6-year old daughter gets between Crawford and deputies and yells 'stop!' Within minutes, the video shows the confrontation turn deadly.

Crawford charges at a deputy with a knife. Another deputy shoots her from behind. All with Crawford's children watching.

The deadly shooting comes only months after CBS13 reported on Nevada County Sheriff's new groundbreaking mobile crisis team, making a plained-clothed, unarmed therapist a first responder to help handle these crisis calls.

CBS13 interviewed Nevada County Behavioral Health Supervisor Todd Arvidson in October.

"When you have law enforcement engage, some people believe that they're going to be punished or incarcerated and that's not the message we want to give," Arvidson said in October.

Only the newly-formed therapist team works just four shifts a week and was not on duty when dispatchers got the call about Crawford.

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The Crawford family attorney, Dante Pride, believes if a therapist team had responded, this deadly outcome could have been different.

"It was clear to me the officers who were engaged with Miss Crawford had no business being engaged with her," Pride said. "Hopefully this instance is an example of why we should have mental health workers every single day that we have police."

The Nevada County Sheriff's therapy team has been dispatched to 44 calls for service since the program launched.

This deputy shooting is under investigation. The children are staying with family in Southern California now.

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