By Darran Simon
The Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, N.J. — Albert Lane III was off his medication. Suffering from a mental illness, he didn’t answer when his brother called his name. He lay on his bed, holding a knife.
“He was just staring at the wall,” said his brother, Derrick, 35. “He wasn’t acting threateningly.”
At some point Tuesday, their mother, Cheri, called Camden police because her son had been “acting threateningly with a weapon,” the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Albert Lane, 33, was fatally shot at least eight times in his home Tuesday as he approached police in a threatening manner with the knife, authorities said. He died at the scene. The shooting is under investigation by Camden police and Prosecutor’s Office.
On Wednesday, Albert Lane’s brother accused police of excessive force and Lane’s mother blamed herself for her son’s death.
“She called police and they killed her son,” Derrick Lane said.
Police were aware that Albert Lane had not been taking his medication, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office.
So a three-man tactical team entered the home, hoping to persuade him to get into an ambulance to take him to treatment, authorities said.
Instead, Lane came out of a second-floor bedroom wielding the knife as the officers climbed the stairs. One officer had a gun, another held a protective shield and a gun, and a third officer was to be the negotiator, Laughlin said.
The officers ordered Lane to drop the knife, but he kept approaching, authorities said. Two officers fired, hitting Lane on the landing, Laughlin said.
Authorities recovered eight shell casings from the rowhouse, Derrick Lane said. Laughlin declined to comment on that.
Derrick Lane pointed to bullet holes on the ceiling above the front of Albert Lane’s second-floor bedroom, and a bullet hole on the first floor.
The three officers are on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure when an officer is involved in a fatal shooting. Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson said Wednesday that in addition to the lawful use of force, all officers have been trained in handling people with anxiety, mood, personality and psychotic disorders.
“We expected them to subdue him and take him to the hospital,” Derrick Lane said.
In 2004, officers did have to subdue Lane, wrestling a knife from him when they found him trespassing in an abandoned home, Laughlin said.
More than a decade ago, Lane was convicted of burglary and given probation.
About three years ago, Albert Lane was diagnosed with a mental illness, Derrick Lane said, though he declined to give details. Lane attended a mental health program and took his medication fairly often. But at times, he stopped taking the medication. It made his hands numb and hampered his weightlifting hobby, Derrick Lane said.
“When he was on his medication, he was a funny guy,” Derrick Lane said. “He wouldn’t harm a fly.”
Albert Lane had not been feeling well earlier Tuesday.
Early that afternoon, Lane asked his mother to take him to the hospital, and she took him to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. “He was probably seeing things,” Derrick Lane said.
The hospital “turned him away because he was nonsuicidal,” and Cheri Lane took him back home, Derrick Lane said.
Carol Lynn Daly, a spokeswoman for Lourdes Health System, said that under privacy laws the hospital could not confirm whether Lane went to the facility.
Hours later, Derrick Lane saw his brother lying in his bed, staring at the wall. He didn’t answer when his name was called. Albert Lane later got a knife from the kitchen and went back to bed, said his brother.
Around 5:30 p.m., Camden police responded to the home on the 1200 block of Browning Street. The family told police that Albert Lane had not taken his medication and was “not in his right mind,” his brother said.
Police told the family to leave the house.
Shortly afterward, Derrick Lane said, he heard a barrage of gunshots. He and his mother pushed against the front door to get back into the house.
“I was really shocked when I heard the gunfire,” Derrick Lane said.
Copyright 2011 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC