Malvern police fatally shot a woman during a wellness check. Their family struggles to move on.

Maddie Hofmann had struggled with mental health diagnoses that include anxiety and depression, and had cycled on and off medication for years, but by May 19 they were in a mental health crisis.

Maddie, 47, had made a steady stream of increasingly concerning tweets over three weeks. Then Maddie posted a photo of a firearm. That was different.

An alarmed colleague, who saw the gun post and received an email from Maddie that prompted concerns they were considering suicide, called 911 and asked for a wellness check. The caller let authorities know Maddie was a transgender woman.

Malvern police arrived at Hofmann’s home on the 800 block of Charleston Greene shortly after 11 a.m. Police fatally shot Maddie, who had a gun, in a 57-second interaction. In the months since Maddie’s death, their spouse, Becky Hofmann, has been left to explain the loss to the couple’s 4- and 9-year-old sons and wonder how she can prevent a similar outcome from happening to someone else experiencing a mental health crisis.

“They belonged on medication, not on a shelf,” said Becky Hofmann, pointing to the box holding Maddie’s ashes. “They’re supposed to be here long enough to get better.”

» READ MORE: Malvern police were justified in fatally shooting a woman brandishing a gun, Chester County DA says

According to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, Maddie told police they were in a “crisis situation.” Maddie briefly set down the black Glock 19 9mm handgun they were holding but picked it up and ran into the house as an officer approached. Maddie waved the gun at officers inside with their finger on the trigger and there was a struggle. An officer shot Maddie three times.

In June, the District Attorney’s Office said officers were justified in the shooting. In the months since, Becky Hofmann has tried to take in what happened.

According to a Washington Post investigation, people in a mental health crisis made up about a quarter of fatal police shooting victims in recent years. Many of these people came to police attention because of suicide concerns or requests for wellness checks.

The question of whether police are the best-equipped to respond to people who are experiencing a mental health crisis has prompted departments in places like Detroit to adopt what’s called a co-responder model, where a mental health professional goes out with officers. Cities like Philadelphia are growing programs where separate units respond to calls involving people experiencing a mental health crisis.

Chester County, where Malvern is located, has mobile crisis outreach through the Valley Creek Crisis Center, where dispatching police to mental health calls is a last resort — but that changes if there’s a risk of violence. Still, accessing this targeted help requires people call Valley Creek directly, according to the county’s Department of Emergency Services. A spokesperson for Valley Creek could not say whether Maddie ever came to its attention, citing privacy concerns.

» READ MORE: When mental health crises require more than a phone conversation, these mobile units come to help

Malvern Mayor Zeyn Uzman — speaking for the borough council and police — said it’s unlikely police could have done anything differently.

“It is speculative, at best, to consider that a mental health provider assisting law enforcement would have changed the outcome in these circumstances,” wrote Uzman, citing the presence of a firearm.

Uzman said officers took a three-hour course last year that focused on recognizing and responding to people with special needs, including mental health issues. This year, officers had to take a three-hour course on implicit bias.

“Given the factual circumstances of the event and the incident lasted only 57 seconds, any additional training or policy changes would not have prevented this tragic occurrence,” wrote Uzman.

“I understand that when a gun is involved, it’s complicated,” said Becky, though she can’t help but imagine a different outcome if officers hadn’t followed Maddie into the house or fired only one shot.

Still, Becky has only so much time to think about May 19. Maddie’s death has rocked the family in more ways than one.

Maddie, who worked in technology, was the family’s main source of income. Had Becky’s mother not lent the family money, Becky said, it’s unclear how she would have paid funeral or living expenses; the family also has a GoFundMe. It took reaching out to U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean’s office to receive a Social Security survivors benefit. Becky’s life insurance claim was approved only this week after a months-long back-and-forth with the borough and the insurer.

And with only the police accounts to go on — Becky has not been able to read the incident report or access body-camera footage — she is struggling to explain to her older son what happened.

Charlie, 9, is old enough to remember Maddie revealing in 2019 that they were a transgender woman and young enough to have had an obsession with law enforcement — the child dressed up as an officer on previous Halloweens. Becky said the admiration disappeared the day Maddie, whom the children still call Dad, died.

“He wants to know if [police] didn’t do the right thing because they didn’t know what to do and maybe if someone told them, then they would know what to do next time,” Becky said. “But then he also is asking, Did they know the right thing but they just didn’t want to help his dad because his dad was different?”

Hanging in Becky’s living room is a painting Maddie made of Maddie and the children. In the corner, there’s a wave and a hand reaching out to the trio. Becky said the wave is symbolic of Maddie’s mental health struggles that finally forced the couple to separate — Maddie lost custody of the children at one point. The hand is Maddie trying to overcome those struggles and reach out to family.

Art is just one way the family remembers Maddie, who loved to write, paint, and play video and board games.

“They could talk about anything, rattling off sports stats to, like, talking about physics or astronomy,” said Emily Flynn, Maddie’s sister. “Maddie was just a person I always wanted to be close to and around.”

Maddie was a Korean adoptee. Flynn said having known biological relatives was life-changing for Maddie. The children were one reason Maddie was motivated to obtain therapy, though they resisted certain medications.

For now, Flynn and Hofmann are trying to process the loss and tell Maddie’s story to advocate for change.

“It’s one of these things, you live in a bubble, you think that these things can never happen to you, but [they] can,” said Flynn.