Walkinshaw, left, at the start of the session in Olympia

Two bills inspired by the death of Joel Reuter on Capitol Hill in 2013 and another bill seeking to make a heroin overdose antidote more widely available were passed out of the state legislature Wednesday. The bills, two of which were sponsored by Capitol Hill’s Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, now head to Governor Jay Inslee to sign into law.

HB 1258, known as Joel’s Law, would strengthen involuntarily commitment guidelines for people suffering from mental illness. If a county decides a person did not meet the threshold for involuntarily commitment, direct family members of that individual could appeal the decision under the new law.

Walkinshaw’s bill was inspired Joel Reuter’s tragic 2013 death on Capitol Hill. Reuter was killed in his Bellevue and E Denny Way apartment by a police sniper when Reuter, suffering from a manic episode, fired a handgun toward police.

Reuters parents were instrumental in getting the law passed, saying they had tried for months to have a mental health professional recommend to a judge that their son should be involuntarily held at a hospital for treatment.

After Joel Reuter’s death, his parents found out there can be some frustrating barriers when it comes to retrieving property from inside a deceased family member’s apartment. HB 1574, another bill inspired by Reuter, would require tenants to provide landlords with contact information for person that will have control over their belongings in the event of the tenant’s death. The bill was passed on to Inslee Wednesday for signing.

Walkinshaw’s other bill, HB 1671 would expand access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse the deadly effects of a heroin overdose. The bill, which was also passed out of the legislature Wednesday, would allow pharmacists to prescribe naloxone to first responders, homeless shelters, and family members and permit them to administer it across the state.