Brent's Fund

The tragic death of Brent Alsleben has devasted his family, and they would greatly appreciate help with final expenses and legal fees. Brent was 34, and touched many lives during his short time on Earth. Sadly, he suffered from mental illness, and his life was taken by police officers on December 15 after a long standoff at his apartment in New Auburn, MN.

Brent was diagnosed as bipolar several years ago and struggled mightily in recent months due to losing both his dad and uncle to a horrific battle with poisoning from bat droppings. Brent’s family members are shellshocked by these family tragedies, as you can imagine.

Brent was such a bright light in everybody's lives. He was a son, a brother, a cousin, a nephew, a grandson, and a friend. He was loved and will be missed by so many.

The family would be ever so grateful for any help you can give.

#forbrent #alsleben #justiceforbrent

::UPDATE::

Brent’s Family and I all Thank You so much for your generous donations. We are all blown away by the love the community has for Brent. The family has been meeting with attorneys regarding what happened with Brent and they have been working hard out in the community to fight for change. It is going to be a long, tough road and they still need help.

Please consider donating. If you can’t donate, please share. If you can’t share, join us. Write to your Governor. Write to your representatives. Share with your friends, family, neighbors, people at the store, literally everyone you speak to. No one asks for mental illness to happen, it just happens. And the police are not trained appropriately to help the mentally ill. This could happen to your sons/daughters and brothers/sisters too.

Links to News Stories about Brent:

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/video/brent-alslebens-family-shares-their-tragic-story/

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/vigil-held-for-brent-alsleben-killed-by-hutchinson-police-officers-during-mental-health-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR0f2lRE9LxjVs0SEyedByqy9iEGk2EG4_qRxs0F4yqRfCxFd4fMb1vhTro#app

Update from Stacia Alsleben Schulz

(Brent’s Sister)

My Brother Brent was shot and killed by 3 policemen on the Hutchinson Department on December 15th. Just 39 days after I had to say goodbye to our Dad.

Brent was diagnosed bipolar schizoaffective in 2011. Brent would convince himself he didn't need medicine and that his mental illness was getting better. He just wanted to be the way he was before this illness robbed him of his life. He went off his medication in April and slipped back into psychosis which literally damages your brain. His psychosis unfortunately got bad the exact same time our dad got sick with histoplasmosis. And when that happened Brent's way of coping was to shut his family out. And Brent has never ever shut me out before. We are best friends. This obviously concerned us tremendously. I didn't know how he was handling our dad getting life threatening sick and then eventually losing his life. Our dad, my mom and myself are Brent's 3 biggest supporters. So losing our dad had to be devastating for him as much as it was for me.

After calling the county for help well over a dozen times, over and over to help us get Brent seen by a doctor, we were so worried he was spiraling alone inside his apartment. They kept saying "nope we can't do anything or hands are tied" My mom and I had no choice but to file for legal guardianship so we can have a say in Brent's medical choices. Once we were granted my mom went to his apartment, called the county, and they had no crisis team. The next county over said they wouldn't cross county lines to help. So they sent one cop to help us convince Brent to go to the doctor.

Eventually EMT's were brought in and were going to attempt to sedate Brent. When they came at him with a needle he had the knife and slashed it to scare them out of his apartment. Brent would never hurt someone if he didn’t feel like he needed to defend himself. He was kind, loving, funny and empathetic. He would, however, defend himself if he believed someone was wrongfully coming after him. He had no guns in his home. He simply had a knife, which they knew about. So he could defend himself.

This moment is what made the police treat him like a criminal. They wouldn't let my mom near him, said it would be a "hostage situation". The cops should have backed down and tried again another day. Instead, they pushed my mom aside, brought about 30 cops in, including a whole swat team with guns, to handle one person with a knife.

He simply needed to be put in cuffs to get him to a hospital. We don’t understand how 30 officers are unable to complete this task without killing someone. 30 against 1. My mom sat outside helplessly as they murdered her son. She heard the flash bag and shortly after the gunshots. Knowing they just murdered her baby. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it took this turn.

I just have to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all this support from friends, family and even strangers who want to stand up with us to support Brent Alsleben.

Thank you for the kind words, the love you have all expressed and the donations. We obviously were not prepared for this and to even take care of Brent's body and give him the memorial he deserves to be buried next to our Dad would have crippled us financially.

So not only are we able to give Brent a proper burial but also because of you guys we are going to spend our lives fighting for the mentally ill. So Brent's death isn't in vain. We are going to make changes so no one else has to lose their son or brother the way I just lost mine.

People turn their cheek when someone thinks differently than they do. It may seem too ugly or uncomfortable until it's someone you love. We are fighting for the people who don't have symptoms yet, it can happen to anyone. Please share the gofundme so we can make a real difference for the mentally ill and vulnerable.