PEORIA, AZ (AZFamily) — The brother of a man shot and killed by a Peoria Police officer Thursday night is remembering his loved one and talking about his fight with mental health issues.
Andrew Cardon, the older brother of 43-year-old Matthew Cardon, said his brother lived with him in the neighborhood where the attack happened, near 87th Avenue and Happy Valley Road, and he’s tried repeatedly to get him into mental health treatment.
Peoria Police say they were forced to shoot and kill Matthew Cardon after he attacked a woman and tried to kidnap her child. Both victims are physically OK.
Andrew Cardon says he’s devastated over the whole ordeal. “I want to apologize to that family for what they went through. That must have been horrifying,” Andrew said in tears.
Andrew Cardon says he lives in that community, and his brother had been living with him for years due to his deteriorating mental health. “He would start to get better and he was good about taking his meds, but they just didn’t work sometimes,” Andrew Cardon explained.
Andrew Cardon says Peoria police were called to his home earlier this week because Matthew Cardon was having a mental health crisis. That was two days before his brother was shot and killed.
“So Peoria police picked him up because he had blood on his face. He was walking around at 7 a.m., then they saw him all bloody around 830, still walking around and they took him to the hospital,” Andrew Cardon said.
Knowing he was about to go out of town, Andrew Cardon says he requested that his brother remain in the hospital after that latest episode, and he would pick him up when he got back. “I explained to (the officer) how he was mentally ill and please hold him for 72 hours,” Andrew Cardon said.
Andrew Cardon says he spoke to his brother on the phone an hour before the incident and he seemed OK. “I woke up around 6 eastern to a phone call from police saying my brother was shot and killed by the police,” he said.
“Reports failed to mention he was unarmed. What I don’t understand is how you can shoot and kill an unarmed man who is mentally ill, who we have been asking for help in the last week,” Andrew Cardon said, upset.
Andrew Cardon describes his brother as a good man. Funny, outgoing, Matthew Cardon was a registered nurse and married with a young daughter. Andrew Cardon says he started struggling with his mental health a few years back. “That ultimately cost him his job, his marriage and all his friends, everyone in his life because no one wanted to deal with his illness,” Andrew Cardon said.
Now his family is looking for answers, wondering what more they could have done. “I want an explanation as to why they couldn’t have tased him. Why did they have to use lethal force?” Andrew Cardon added.
Andrew Cardon says he has never seen his brother being violent.
Arizona’s Family has requested the body-cam video as well as the details on which hospital his brother was at.
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