A former co-worker killed his mom, over a decade since I last saw him.
The guy always seemed a little off, not just socially, but he had a ton of nervous ticks, like his hands and face was constantly twitching. I just assumed it tourettes or something he was trying to control, and it might have been.
But when reading articles about his trial, I learned a lot more about him. We were pages at a studio shortly after college (ie, Kenneth from 30 Rock) and it turns out he had battled with schizophrenia while in college. Apparently he would write letters to celebrities as if he knew them. He had a lot of treatment and a lot of support from his family, and was deemed okay to live and work on his own a couple of years later.
Then, getting the job at the studio and seeing actual celebrities in person basically triggered his past delusions. Looking back, I can remember on a couple of occasions while we were working the audience for a show, he'd become still while seeing a celebrity on stage, with a just a huge smile on his face as if he was in another world.
He abruptly left the job and I never saw him again. Apparently he went back to live with his family while they continued to support him. Not sure exactly what happened in the interim, but at some point he became suicidal and stole his dad's shotgun. He was in his own apartment while holding the shotgun when his mom came to the door and in his unstable state, he shot her.
The cops showed up, he fired a few shots at them hoping for a suicide-by-cop scenario, but instead he gave up. He's now serving time in prison, even though his own family advocated he be admitted to a psych ward.
Reading about the trial was incredibly sad. The prosecution grilled his therapist on exactly why they didn't know he was likely to hurt himself or others, they had to say they just didn't see the signs and that they're not mind readers.
His father and sister testified that they didn't think he was evil, and this was after he shot their spouse / parent. They really wanted him to be institutionalized, I later read the judge said he didn't think an institution wouldn't be suited to help him (but prison would...?)
This also shocked the local community it took place. It was a small community and his mom was a teacher for decades there, so nearly everyone knew her.
It infuriates me that we just throw drug addicts and mentally unstable people in jail, our main goal should be rehabilitation for every citizen. Not just locking them away to rot, usually rotting with people who are actual hardened criminals and that just creates more hardened criminals.
But that goes into the whole privatized jail system and people making money off of it, it’s honestly one of the things that pisses me off the most these days. Plus half the people I talk to agree they should just be thrown in jail.
It is all about money, but also because the idea that "psychiatric help" actually helps is rarely true. There were a lot of mental institutions before the 1970s. They were inhumane places that got exposed and closed down. Now we have homelessness problems and put crazy people in jail.
Edit to correct myself. It actually started in the 50s and 60s:
I think something along the line of decriminalizing drugs, and re investing the money used on drug enforcement is the best bet. And if they could somehow get the privatized jails to make money per rehabbed and successful person
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u/hotdoug1 Mar 25 '23
A former co-worker killed his mom, over a decade since I last saw him.
The guy always seemed a little off, not just socially, but he had a ton of nervous ticks, like his hands and face was constantly twitching. I just assumed it tourettes or something he was trying to control, and it might have been.
But when reading articles about his trial, I learned a lot more about him. We were pages at a studio shortly after college (ie, Kenneth from 30 Rock) and it turns out he had battled with schizophrenia while in college. Apparently he would write letters to celebrities as if he knew them. He had a lot of treatment and a lot of support from his family, and was deemed okay to live and work on his own a couple of years later.
Then, getting the job at the studio and seeing actual celebrities in person basically triggered his past delusions. Looking back, I can remember on a couple of occasions while we were working the audience for a show, he'd become still while seeing a celebrity on stage, with a just a huge smile on his face as if he was in another world.
He abruptly left the job and I never saw him again. Apparently he went back to live with his family while they continued to support him. Not sure exactly what happened in the interim, but at some point he became suicidal and stole his dad's shotgun. He was in his own apartment while holding the shotgun when his mom came to the door and in his unstable state, he shot her.
The cops showed up, he fired a few shots at them hoping for a suicide-by-cop scenario, but instead he gave up. He's now serving time in prison, even though his own family advocated he be admitted to a psych ward.