To his sister, Aleksander Malek was a delusional man in need of help.

To the Clifton police officer who encountered him on April 28, Malek, wielding a machete and a pipe, was a threat who needed to be stopped. The officer shot Malek once in the chest after he refused to drop the weapons.

During the past week, police statewide have shot three people described as having a mental illness or mental disability.

Such events raise questions about police training in dealing with the mentally disabled. Local police and mental health professionals say officers receive training and support from local hospitals that provide emergency psychiatric services. But some police officials acknowledge that the training is limited by strained resources.

Plus, police and experts say, the imminent danger that an offender poses with a weapon often overrides the consideration of the individual's mental condition.

Here's how that pressure played out last week in New Jersey.

On the rainy evening of June 3, three Clifton police officers shot and critically wounded Garfield resident John Kubasta, described by his family as developmentally disabled, after he reversed his car into a police cruiser. On June 7, a Willingboro police Officer shot and injured a 15-year-old student at a school for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. The boy allegedly lunged at the officer with a pair of scissors.

On Saturday night, a Seaside Heights police officer shot and injured an alleged armed robber who threatened to kill himself before he pointed his gun at police.

"(Police are) geared to the worse-case scenario," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a former New York Police officer. "And you're asking them to take into account that it's ... a disabled person. That's a hard thing to do in real time."

In crisis situations, mentally disabled people don't respond to police the same way mentally healthy people do, advocates for the mentally disabled argue.

Defusing a potentially dangerous situation by talking slowly, for example, could prevent tragedy, state and national advocates said.

"Events like this are happening throughout our country," said Maj. Sam Cochran of the Memphis Police Department. The department has pioneered improving police treatment of the mentally disabled nationwide.

Seven percent of police contacts involve a person believed to have a mental illness, according to the Council of State Governments, an organization created to help state governments share ideas. And yet, as of 1999, more than half of police departments in 194 cities with a population of more than 100,000 didn't have a specialized police response for dealing with people with mental disabilities, according to the Council.

In 1988, the Memphis Police Department created the "Crisis Intervention Team" following public outrage over a police shooting of a mentally ill man armed with a knife. As a member of the team, officers receive 40 hours of specialized training. Those officers are then called to respond to incidents in which a mentally disabled person is believed to be involved.

Between 500 and 600 towns nationwide have adopted the Memphis training method, said Cochran, who heads that city's training unit. On Wednesday, Cochran will visit Collingswood, in Camden County, the first municipality in New Jersey to implement the program, he said.

If Teaneck resident Carol Manigault has her way, North Jersey towns will follow suit. Manigault created the Jelani Institute, a foundation named for her son who was shot to death by police in 2003 at age 24 when he brandished a knife during an anxiety attack. She said she is contacting North Jersey mayors and police chiefs hoping to get them to adopt the Memphis police training model.

Currently in Passaic County, the Psychiatric Emergency Services at St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic maintains a 24-hour system of crisis counselors to aid police. The Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus operates a similar hot line for police departments in Bergen County.

Josh Belsky, coordinator of Psychiatric Emergency Services, says the hospital receives about 90 calls a month from area police departments.

PES is also responsible for training many of the county's police officers in mental health matters. Seminars are held once or twice a year at Passaic County Police Academy in Wayne, and individual police departments hire PES to give in-house seminars, Belsky said.

While continuous training in mental health cases may be ideal, limited resources can dictate otherwise.

"If you have a small department, it's hard to get guys out to school," Haledon police Chief Louis Mercuro said. He said in the two years since he became police chief, he has not sent any officer to a mental health training seminar.

Margaret Pipala, Malek's sister, wonders if the night of April 28 could have ended differently.

The 50-year-old Polish city resident had never been diagnosed as mentally ill. But he'd never before acted the way he did that Saturday, said Pipala, who was busy at work and couldn't take Malek to the hospital for help.