Early one May morning in 2019, 20-year-old Kobee Huddy was desperate for help. He called a mental health service for advice. Less than four hours later he would be dead – shot by police.
Warning: This article contains discussions of suicide.
The South Australian coroner is examining the events leading up to the fatal shooting.
His mother, Belinda Huddy, believes that call, along with Kobee’s other interactions with the mental health system, set the scene for his death.
“The call in my eyes was disgusting, heartless,” Ms Huddy told 7.30.
The following clip contains content that may disturb some viewers and contains a description of self-harm.
Loading…
“I believe that if the person on the other side of that phone had a bit of care and compassion, I believe Kobee could have come down and got the help he needed and it wouldn’t have ended up in the disaster that it did.”
One hour after calling SA Health’s Mental Health Triage Line, Kobee called triple-0. His demeanour had changed. He threatened to shoot police.
The following clip contains content that may disturb some viewers and contains a description of self-harm and violence.
Loading…
Ms Huddy is speaking about her son’s death for the first time, in the hope of improving care for people with mental health conditions.
“The system is just flawed, completely,” she said.
“Kobee’s life is lost, but we can save other lives.”
‘Too high risk’
Kobee Huddy struggled with his mental health throughout his teenage years. He was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
“He was into risky behaviour. He lost his licence more than he had his licence. Binge drinking and abandonment,” Ms Huddy told 7.30.
He went to hospital multiple times for self-harm and was referred to various community mental health agencies, including Headspace.
“He was just like a ping-pong ball,” she told 7.30.
“Sometimes he was told he was too high risk to be in a community program or he was referred to the wrong section … sometimes people need that additional push to be made to talk, just not answer a phone … so he must be fine. Let’s just leave it and then the next night, we’re sitting in hospital again.”
‘All he wanted was someone to care’
On May 23, 2019, 36 hours before his death, Kobee took himself to Adelaide’s Lyell McEwin public hospital. He’d just lost his job.
Despite self-harming hours earlier, Ms Huddy told 7.30 her son was discharged.
“Ultimately, that’s part of the reason why I’m sitting here now telling Kobee’s story, my story,” she said.
“Not once was he ever seen by a mental health person [at the hospital]. They didn’t see that he was at risk of suicide.
“All I wanted was some help for Kobee. He tended to get better when he’d had a day or two in hospital with seeing a psychologist.”
Late on May 24, Kobee went out drinking with a friend.
Early the next morning, his girlfriend Krista Burgoyne picked him up from the city. She went to work at about 8am.
“I was hesitant … he promised me he would be OK,” she said.
“He told me … how he wants to help himself and he doesn’t want to be like that forever. He talked about the future. He talked about his 21st birthday.
“I gave him the biggest hug. We told each other we loved each other and I went to work.”
It was at Krista’s house where a drunk and depressed Kobee phoned SA Health’s Mental Health Triage line for help.
The counsel assisting the coroner has described the nurse on the call as at times blunt and uninterested in Kobee’s request for help.
“All he wanted was someone to care and he was just shut down. He needed help and was just dismissed,” Ms Huddy told 7.30.
The coroner’s court was told that after speaking to Kobee for about 10 minutes, the mental health triage nurse called SA Ambulance but misrepresented the call. Kobee doesn’t speak to SA Ambulance and no paramedics are dispatched.
The following clip contains content that may disturb some viewers and contains a description of self-harm.
Loading…
The inquest heard the nurse operator could not be held responsible for Kobee’s interactions with police.
‘Take him to the hospital’
At about 9am Kobee calls triple-0 and threatens police. Patrols are dispatched to find him.
“Kobee’s never had a gun. His uncle’s a police officer. Through all of Kobee’s records, you can see he was never aggressive towards police,” Ms Huddy told 7.30.
“He wanted a reaction because he knew he would get help … because he was seasoned with his illness.”
Worried about her boyfriend, Ms Burgoyne phoned her aunty, who lived nearby, to check on him.
“He was in a state of depression. Drinking, you know, dark,” Ms Burgoyne told 7.30.
“It was not pretty.”
By 9:40am, Krista’s aunty, her best friend and Kobee had jumped in a car to go buy cigarettes from a service station. As they pulled out of the driveway, they were spotted by a police officer.
“They [Krista’s aunty] called me, said, ‘Something’s off. We’re going to take him to the servo.’ I told them, ‘No, don’t go to the servo. Go to the hospital. Take him to the hospital,'” Ms Burgoyne told 7.30.
The officer pulled the car over and asked Kobee to get out. Kobee had a knife with him.
The officer said he told Kobee to drop the knife. He said he fired a single gunshot after Kobee took two or three quick steps toward him with a knife. Kobee was pronounced dead in hospital less than two hours later.
“My best friend said that I died that day because when they told me, I just flipped myself onto the floor and started screaming. I couldn’t believe it,” Ms Huddy said.
“I couldn’t even cuddle my son and say goodbye and tell him I love him.”
Ms Huddy was later shown the body-camera footage of the shooting.
“When they were trying to save him, the police were really good,” she said.
“All of them were trying to save his life and then you heard his words: ‘I’m sorry.’
“I can’t believe he just said he was sorry when he’d been shot. You could hear it clear as day.”
Ms Huddy doesn’t blame the police for her son’s death but questions why the officer who shot Kobee wasn’t certified to carry a taser.
The officer who shot Kobee died in April this year from natural causes. He was 49.
“I saw the way the police officer was after [the shooting] and he was crying as well,” Ms Huddy said.
“I feel like the police officer was probably as broken as me.”
A system in crisis
In a statement, Headspace CEO Jason Trethowan said the organisation offered its condolences to Kobee’s family and friends. He said pressure on the wider mental health system meant Headspace was responding to the needs of young people with more complex mental health needs and funding was inadequate.
In a statement, SA Police said it was awaiting the coroner’s findings, but said a trial where mental health nurses accompanied some police patrols had seen significant benefits and permanency of the program would be considered.
Mark Carroll from the SA Police Association said Kobee’s death was emblematic of a system in crisis.
“The last thing that we [police] want to do is to use our firearm to deal with somebody who was suffering a health episode,” Mr Carroll told 7.30.
“The incidents that we respond to for mental health taskings, not just here in South Australia but around the nation, has exploded over the last decade. We would spend up to five hours on one tasking.
“Police are there to protect and serve the community and not pick up the pieces for failing mental health departments.”
Ian Hickie from the University of Sydney was a founding director of Headspace. He said Kobee’s experience with the mental health system was not uncommon.
“In Kobee’s situation there clearly was an earlier opportunity, and I’ve heard many similar stories where there was an opportunity but the opportunity was missed, not just by Headspace, but by state-based services, by emergency departments, by others, to coordinate that care,” he said.
“But at the moment no one takes responsibility for that.
“Throwing more money at the way we currently do things will not fix it. Much more fundamental structural reform is required.”
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler told 7.30 the government was committed to fixing fragmentation within the mental health system and had been handed a review into the operation of Headspace, which was under consideration.
“The challenge that Professor Hickie really points to is the increasing number of young people with far more complex and severe needs,” Mr Butler said.
“Kobee’s story is one example of that, and that is a cohort for whom Headspace wasn’t really designed.
“I’m from South Australia and I’d be more than willing to sit down with Kobee’s mum and talk through her very tragic experience of interactions with the system and her son’s experience.”
Mr Butler also recognised there needed to be a seamless transition for mental health patients between hospital and community agencies.
“I’ve been on the record for some time saying we need much better coordination between hospital discharge and community services,” he said.
“Partly this is a challenge of digital health and not having a single digital health system that allows an easy transfer of discharge information to primary care providers.”
In a statement, SA Health sent sincere condolences to Kobee’s family but a spokesman said the department couldn’t comment because the coroner had yet to hand down his findings.
Ms Huddy said she was finding strength by advocating in Kobee’s honour for better mental health care.
“Since Kobee’s passing, I’ve got complex trauma, PTSD, depression, I can’t sleep,” she said.
“So many people suffer with losing their children, their family, their loved ones, their friends from mental illness, and the services just aren’t there.
“I want to incite change.
Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
