Original story Granted, this is just the usual "American with history of mental health issues gets a gun and kills people" story, which seems to happen once a week anymore, but in this case I can add a little more because I was there for parts of it. Appearently the shooter's mother called police about 1430 because her son was breaking into the neighbor's house. A deputy responded, but that's the last anyone heard for a while. Repeated radio calls to the deputy got no response, and about 1600 a second deputy was dispatched to the scene, where they discovered the first deputy and another person dead. A few minutes later a motorcyclist was shot in the arm at a gas station just down the road, and a few minutes after that a motorist was found dead in a car in the center of the freeway. The police had a description of the vehicle and began chasing him about 5 miles out of Mt Vernon, but he shot and wounded a state trooper, before getting off the freeway in Mt. Vernon and surrendering. About this time responders began finding more bodies near where the first deputy was shot. By the time it was over there was the first deputy and someone else killed at one scene, two construction workers killed a few blocks down the road, another random person killed on the next street over, the dead person on the freeway, and two wounded. Myself and my partner were at the Mt. Vernon hospital on an unrelated run when this was going on and our other crew saw the beginning of the pursuit. The next morning we checked the records, and indeed my company transported him to the mental hospital twice in 2003. I love how this part of the world only makes the news when people die
I can see this thread going, predicably, the same way as others. Nexxo: guns are bad take them off people. Gun nuts enthusiasts: but they're there to help us over throw the government... I feel for the families of the victims and the lad him self could be described as a victim him self. Will any thing change any one waiting on a snowy hell?
Not being funny or anything, but some of these dudes sound like they'd benefit from a bit of euthanasia... Of course that'll never happen, and if it did happen, I'd be opposed to it But in all honesty, I don't see how things like this can happen. We have a known criminal, convicted before, who has also suffered from mental health problems. Does it not make sense to keep tabs on this dude, pop in and see how he's doing every once in a while? Make sure he's working and off the smack? I could diss the USA's gun policy, but the subject is boring and exhaustive, so instead, this time, I criticise society. For allowing someone to get f'ed up enough in the head to go around killing random people. I barely found that fun in GTA, never mind in real life...
I agree with you, but I can see what the response to such an idea would be. Someone, probably a lot of someones would complain about their tax dollars being used to "coddle criminals" and "help losers". They would say that it's not the government's job to take care of "those people" and that they should "man up and be responsible". Never mind that this is someone with significant mental health issues who cannot be reasonably expected to function independently in society. The bottom line for a lot of people is "no one ever helped me, so don't ask me for a damn thing for anyone else". I recently read about an innovative program that a major metropolitan fire department in the US started (I forget which one). They took a look at who the top 1% of consumers were and how to reduce their inappropriate use of emergency services. In some cases it was places like nursing homes who were calling 900 because they didn't know what else to do, and so there the issue was educating the staff on when it was appropriate to call and what other resources might be more appropriate. In other cases it was people accessing 911 as their only means of getting health care or social services. In one particularly egregious case they had a woman who had called the fire department over 250 times in the past year. The solution they eventually found in that case was to have a firefighter who was on light duty and unable to work on a crew go by her house each day and see that she got to her doctor's appointments and generally check in on her. For the cost of one one person stopping by for a few minutes each day they were able to reduce their call volume by 250 runs a year. Confronted with such a situation, many conservatives would say "stop responding" or "Throw her in jail", but I think that the solution this fire department came up with is both more compassionate and a better value for the community. Obviously we cannot say for sure, but would having someone stop by and check on this young many have prevented six deaths? Unfortunatly the Reagan / Bush brand of "compassionate conservatism" has resulted in a drastic reduction of social services and so people who need extra help to get through life are pretty much on their own. This is an example of what happens when those people can't cope and act out violently as a result.
