Mentally ill man gets 8 years for standoff that injured cop

A St. Paul man with a mental illness whose armed standoff with police in 2015 left an officer with an air rifle pellet lodged in his face was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison.

Robert Wood’s sentencing day landed amid national turmoil over slayings of law enforcement officers that followed weeks of protests over the deaths of blacks in encounters with police.

Wood’s story was highlighted in a recent Star Tribune series “A Cry for Help” showing that more than 45 percent of the people who die in police encounters in Minnesota had a history of mental illness or were in the throes of a mental health crisis.

http://www.startribune.com/mentally-ill-man-gets-8-years-for-standoff-that-injured-cop/387321521/