Dontae Melton Jr. was a young 31-year-old father who died during a mental health crisis. He did everything right. He realized he needed help, so he approached the police. He didn’t overreact or cause anyone harm. All he did was ask for help, yet he didn’t get it at the right time.
The death of Melton has sparked outrage and sorrow across Baltimore. What began as a desperate plea for assistance turned into a fatal encounter. It was all due to the failure of the system, delay in care, and several unanswered questions.
On the night of June 24, Melton approached a police vehicle stopped at a red light near West Franklin Street and North Franklintown Road. He was visibly distressed and had walked into the traffic to reach the police for help.
According to dispatch recordings, the officer initially reported, “I’ve got a gentleman pulling on my doors asking for help, but he doesn’t look like he needs help.”
However, the officer acknowledged after a while that Melton “appeared to be suffering a mental health crisis.”
Mother of Dontae Melton Jr., man who died in police custody, says the system failed her sonhttps://t.co/jmlhTA6G36
— Baltimore Beat (@baltbeat) July 2, 2025
However, it wasn’t an ambulance that came for Melton, he was more police. More officers arrived at the location, and for some reason, Melton was placed in handcuffs and leg restraints.
Then emergency medical services were requested twice. Melton lost consciousness around 10:15 p.m., yet no ambulance had arrived on location.
Roughly 15 minutes later, officers took the matter into their own hands and transported him to the hospital themselves. But it was already late, as he was pronounced dead soon after arrival, in the early hours of June 25.
The Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system of Baltimore played the biggest role in this tragedy. The system apparently experienced an eight-minute outage during the incident.
It is speculated that CAD malfunction may have prevented EMS from receiving the call. It could be the reason for the failure of coordination of a timely response.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has acknowledged the system failure and stated that an internal review is underway. The review is being conducted to assess whether backup procedures were followed appropriately.
Melton’s mother, Eleshia Goode, is out here, seeking truth and justice. She is a school counselor. When Melton showed signs of severe mental distress, Goode had spent weeks trying to secure help for him.
Her son died in Baltimore police custody two weeks ago.
He became unresponsive after being restrained. The medic never came despite multiple calls likely because the CAD system was down.
His mom tried to get him help with his mental health struggles, but a judge denied her… pic.twitter.com/nDKlvekDN0
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) July 8, 2025
Goode also filed both an emergency mental health petition and a protective order just days before his death. She was hoping that a legal intervention would trigger treatment or crisis support.
However, both petitions were denied. “I did everything I could,” Goode said. “I knew he needed help. I tried to get it, and no one listened.” The denial of these petitions points to a larger issue of the difficulty families face when they are trying to obtain immediate health assistance through the courts.
Baltimore has only one dedicated crisis intervention team. Apart from that, it is still unclear if the officers on the scene had the proper training or not to handle such situations.
There have been high-profile cases in Baltimore of a similar nature. In 2012, Tyrone West died in custody. Such cases have made communities concerned about policing and a lack of mental health awareness among first responders.
The Maryland Independent Investigations Division (IID) is leading an inquiry into Melton’s death. The identities of the officers involved have not been released, nor has the body camera footage, but officials promise transparency.
The IID’s preliminary report confirms that medics were called. However, they never arrived. The report also confirms that Melton was restrained while showing signs of medical distress.
Melton’s death shows systemic flaws in emergency response and mental health care.
