Choosing to call for help has left these families suffering from a kind of survivor's guilt, one for people who were failed by a broken system that gave them nothing but bad options.

"I heard two shots. This was all within a half a minute. After that, I fell to my knees. I knew that they had shot my son."

Taun Hall went out of her way to form a relationship with the local police to let them know that her son was a resident of the neighborhood and not a threat.

"Apparently he had a sword with him, and the cops got out and shot him six times and killed him, I think, probably within six seconds," Debbie told Insider.

Jamarion, who had schizophrenia, was shot and killed by police officers in 2016, weeks after his mother called 911 during his mental health crisis.

"We explained to 911 dispatch that we have a child who has schizophrenia and that we wanted to do an involuntary" commitment, Wilsey said.

Wallace's mother said that police were aware of her son's mental-health crisis, and that officers had been called to the house three times earlier on the day he was killed.

"I placed a phone call for my brother to get help. Not for my brother to get lynched," Joe Prude said.