Date: 10/2009
Location: Wyandanch, Suffolk, NY
Summary: On October 26, 2009, Courtney Williams, 30, fatally stabbed his disabled mother and his partially blind stepbrother and also attacked his stepfather. Family members of the victims said Williams was mentally ill and had begun acting erratically after he stopped his medication. Queen Mobley’s sister-in-law Barbara Brown of Wyandanch and her sister, Mary Goodbread of Goldsboro, N.C., said Queen Mobley had contacted police on October 24 to report that Williams “was acting out.” “They told her that he would have to hurt somebody before they would do anything,” said Goodbread, 62. “Now they’ve got to answer.”
Source Of Information: Newsday, 10/27/09
Date: 12/2009
Location: Queensbury, Warren, NY
Summary: On December 1, 2009, Joanne M. Mattison stabbed her ex-boyfriend, James D. Euber to death at the home he shared with his sister, Becky “Grace” Biggs. Her father, John Mattison, said she was diagnosed as bipolar years ago, and has “problems” when she does not take her medication. “When she’s on her medication, she’s as normal as you and I,” he said. “I want to make sure she gets back on her medication.”
Source Of Information: Glen Falls Post Star, 12/3/09
Date: 1/2005
Location: Bronx, , NY
Summary: A police officer shot and wounded a knife-wielding Bronx teen after the mentally disturbed youth lunged at officers on January 26, 2005. Nicholas Martin, 17, was hit by two police bullets in his family’s apartment. Martin’s aunt dialed 911 that night saying Martin had not taken his medication and was tearing up the apartment.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, January 27, 2005;Greenwich Time, January 27, 2005
Date: 1/2005
Location: East Patchogue, Suffolk, NY
Summary: In January 2005, Alexander Rousseau, 50, was arrested for violating an order of protection taken out against him by WALK 97.5 radio station personality K.T. Mills. Although she has never met Rousseau, Mills said, “He thinks I’ve had a relationship and a baby with him.” Mills was surprised to hear from Rousseau, because she thought he was living in a group home in Tampa, Florida,. “I don’t want to see him in prison,” Mills said of Rousseau. He has also been remanded to mental health facilities in Suffolk County at least twice.
Source Of Information: Suffolk Life Newspaper (Long Island, NY), January 25, 2005
Date: 4/2005
Location: Rocky Point, Suffolk, NY
Summary: John Cox, 39-year-old man with a long history of mental illness, died on April 22, 2005 after an altercation with Suffolk County (NY) police, in which he was shocked five times with a Taser. Police had responded to a 911 call made by someone inside Cox’s girlfriend’s house in Rocky Point, NY after Cox became agitated. One witness said the trouble started because Cox had forgotten to take his medication. Cox was also often a patient at the Kings Park Psychiatric Center and the Stony Brook University Hospital. His last hospitalization at the Kings Park facility was in early 2005, when he stayed for 30 days, then moved into a halfway house.
Source Of Information: Long Island Newsday, April 25, 2005; Long Island Newsday, April 30, 2005
Date: 4/2005
Location: New York, , NY
Summary: Russell Martinez, 41, an emotionally disturbed Rhode Island man disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on April 4, 2005 trying to get a letter to Cardinal Edward Egan in which the man demanded to be the next Pope. As Egan celebrated Mass, Martinez shouted and tried to give him a letter with instructions on who should be Pope John Paul II’s replacement. Martinez, suffered from schizophrenia, and had been off his medication for about a year, his parents said.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, April 5, 2005
Location: Manhattan, New York, NY
Summary: On July 30, 2009, Ivy Supersonic, whose real name is Ivy Silberstein, a member of Howard Stern’s wack pack, screamed wildly at police as she was loaded into an ambulance outside her luxury Union Square building, witnesses said. Police responded to her apartment after they received a call she was acting erratically and was possibly armed, police sources said. Silberstein’s removal from the Zeckendorf Towers marked the end of a bizarre 24 hours for the fashion designer, who posted frenzied messages on her Facebook page alleging that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was conspiring against her. “Who ever [sic] has a copy of the voice notes file send to FBI,” she typed. “UR very smart – send same tapes to Homeland and CIA protect me from Ray Kelly FedEx it to Obama now!!!” Police sources said Silberstein’s doctor called 911 to say that his patient, the daughter of famed attorney Jerome Silberstein, was bipolar and off her medication.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 7/30/09
Date: 6/2008
Location: Manhattan, New York, NY
Summary: On June 9, 2008, Orangetown police used a Taser to subdue the Rev. Patricia Ackerman, a peace activist suffering a mental crisis who had barricaded herself and an employee inside her Broadway apartment, holding off police for nearly two hours. Her friends said Ackerman, an Episcopal priest, is bipolar and had stopped taking her medication. Her behavior had been erratic and she had been acting out, causing alarm among her friends and associates. “Patty hasn’t been acting like herself,” said Phyllis Frank, a top official with the Volunteer Counseling Service and a social activist. “People knew she needed help.”
Source Of Information: Journal News, 6/10/08, 6/15/08
Date: 7/2008
Location: Queens, Queens, NY
Summary: On July 12, 2008, Donelle Dumunn was fatally shot by Eric Hutchinson after Dumunn shot Hutchinson’s wife, Tawana Simmons. Dumunn, 28, had burst in and shot Simmons in a fit of rage, police said. Hutchinson then fatally shot Dumunn and fled – taking both his gun and the boarder’s, according to police. “Donelle was bipolar and off his medication,” said his godsister Renee Spikes, 30, of Jamaica.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 7/13/08
Date: 9/2007
Location: Queens, Queens, NY
Summary: On September 26, 2007, fears of another Virginia Tech massacre gripped St. John’s University after a student was spotted walking through the campus carrying a .50-caliber rifle and wearing a Halloween mask. The suspect, Omesh Hiraman, 22, an emigrant from Guyana, was arrested with the help of a police cadet, sources said. The loaded weapon, manufactured by Wolf, in Spain, carries just one shot, and while no other ammunition was found on Hiraman, police searching his Elmhurst home yesterday found another 50 rounds of ammunition. Police sources said that Hiraman told them that he was schizophrenic and hadn’t taken his medication.
Source Of Information: Newsday, 9/27/07; New York 1 News, 9/28/07
Date: 9/2007
Location: West Saugerties, Ulster, NY
Summary: On September 26, 2007, Tracey Passaro, 37, was found dead inside her and her husband’s home in West Saugerties after a person inside the house called 911 and said there had been a shooting. When police from several agencies arrived at the house, Anthony Passaro Jr., 40, was waiting outside and confessed that he had shot his wife, state police Capt. Wayne Olson said. Tracey Passaro’s sister, Toni Del’Ostia of Yonkers, said that her brother-in-law has a history of mental illness, tried to kill himself on more than one occasion, is prone to wild mood swings and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
Source Of Information: Kingston Daily Freeman, 9/28/07; Middletown Times Herald Record, 11/24/09
Date: 10/2007
Location: Bronx, Bronx, NY
Summary: On October 6, 2007, Lee Coleman, 38, went on a bloody rampage after stealing knives from a Second Ave. restaurant. Coleman appeared to have super-human strength after attacking 56-year-old cook Amarjit Singh of Queens and mutilating Susan Barron, 67, an East Side psychologist, witnesses said. “After he got shot, he was still standing up,” said Gus Kassimis, 36, who saw part of the attack from the Gemini diner he owns on Second Ave. Coleman’s sister, Teresa Gonzalez, said he was schizophrenic and bipolar and that he had been “really stressed” and “struggling” in recent days. Gonzalez said that her family was trying to get Coleman help just before the attack. She confirmed a news report that her brother had stopped taking his medication a long time ago because, “It made him sluggish. He thought it was doing him harm.” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller blamed the attack on authorities’ failure to enforce laws that are supposed to keep the mentally ill on their medications.
Source Of Information: NY Daily News, 10/8/07; Channel 2 News (NY), 10/9/07; New York Daily News, 10/15/08
Date: 7/2007
Location: Middletown, Orange, NY
Summary: On July 13, 2007, Ray Jackson, 42, was fatally stabbed at David Moore Heights, a housing project on Genung Street in the City of Middletown. Jackson was having a cookout with his family and neighbors in the public courtyard when Gilbert Judge Jr., 39, went on a tirade. Judge, who was visiting his mother at her apartment 20 yards away, began yelling about garbage around the house. Judge grabbed a knife, swept his mother out of her apartment and locked himself inside with her three adopted children, ages 7, 6 and 3. Judge has a history of mental illness. According to police, he had been released only three days prior to the incident from Arden Hill Hospital, where he had spent more than three weeks under observation for his mental problems.
Source Of Information: Times- Herald Record, 7/14/07
Date: 7/2007
Location: Henrietta, Henrietta, NY
Summary: On July 21, 2007, 81-year-old Stephen Mox was found dead at his home in Henrietta. His son, Michael Mox, who has had several prior hospitalizations for mental health reasons, was accused of accused of fatally beating and stabbing his father. Mox, was diagnosed at age 19 as a paranoid schizophrenic. At his plea, Mox said he hadn’t been taking prescription medication, became angry with his father, and heard voices.
Source Of Information: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 8/3/07, 9/14/08
Date: 5/2007
Location: Union Springs, Cayuga, NY
Summary: On May 17, 2007, Jon Hewitt threatened his former girlfriend with two knives, forcing her to go with to his boat against her will, and restricted her movements. . He blamed his “irrational” behavior on his bipolar condition and him not taking his prescription.
Source Of Information: Auburn Citizen, 8/28/07, 8/29/07
Date: 9/2007
Location: Niagara Falls, Niagara, NY
Summary: On September 5, 2007, Shauna Mahoney allegedly killed her 19 1/2-month-old son, Trevor Schneider, because she didn’t want him growing up to be like her. The statement was part of a confession Mahoney made to officers after she was arrested that evening. Adam Schneider, the child’s father, said Mahoney had struggled with mental health issues since she was 17, had twice been taken to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s psychiatric unit for observation and had been institutionalized for a short period at a mental-health facility in Medina. s.
Source Of Information: Buffalo News, 9/9/07, 5/2/08
Date: 4/2008
Location: Queens, Queens, NY
Summary: On April 2, 2008, Felipe Velasquez wielded a machete slashing a stranger and tossed Molotov cocktails at cops from his roof. According to Velasquez’s family, he is a schizophrenic who was off his meds at the time of the incident. Felipe Velasquez’s uncle said his nephew recently spent a month at Elmhurst Hospital Center and was diagnosed with mental illness.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 4/3/08
Date: 9/2005
Location: Veteran, Chemung, NY
Summary: On September 17, 2005, state police were called to Michael and Rebecca Cannon’s home in Veteran, when someone reported a man wearing a bloody shirt was digging in the dirt near the home. Police discovered Rebecca Cannon’s body in the home. It was determined later that she died of suffocation. Michael Cannon was indicted in January 2006 on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, : A competency hearing was held October 4, 2006 in front of Chemung County Judge James Hayden, who ruled Michael Cannon was incapable of assisting in his own defense. In early 2007, During the May 2007 trial of Michael Cannon, Chemung County Public Defender Nancy Eraca-Cornish pointed out that Cannon had attempted suicide in the month before the murder and had been involuntarily committed to a mental treatment program. Several witnesses testified that on the day of the murder, Michael Cannon was picking up dirt and gravel, packing it into a deep gash in the middle of his forehead. Rebecca Cannon’s children from her first marriage said they were seeking justice for their mother and were united in their stand to not be satisfied with any kind of plea bargain for the man they believe could have prevented their mother’s death if he had taken his prescription medication. Martin Cannon of Middleton, N.J., a younger brother of Michael Cannon, said his brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was still a teenager.
Source Of Information: Elmira Star Gazette, 5/15/07, 5/17/07
Date: 6/2007
Location: Staten Island, Richmond, NY
Summary: On June 28, 2007, John Potts, 32, fatally attacked a peacock in the parking lot of a Burger King. “I don’t see what the big f- – -ing deal is about this bird,” sources quoted Potts as telling police. “It had negative energy. It came out of the darkness, so I kicked it.” Potts, who lives in the woods near the Tottenville home of his mother and stepdad, Chris, was shipped off to Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward for testing, following his arrest Sunday night. His mom said her son was a schizophrenic who was treated at Staten Island’s South Beach Psychiatric Center, but went off his medication a month ago. Norma Brittain, John Potts’ mother, said that this was the third incident over the last couple of years in which Potts has lost control of his thinking after going off his medication. Brittain said that when Potts is off his medication he is delusional, believing that the CIA is after him. On July 30, 2007, John Potts, 32, was found incompetent to stand trial.
Source Of Information: New York Post, 7/3/07, 7/31/07; Staten Island Advance, 7/5/07, 8/14/07
Date: 4/2006
Location: Schenectady, Schenectady, NY
Summary: On April 21, 2006, Nicholas Paniccia killed his grandmother, Marlene A. Hill, 75, by stabbing her in the neck during a psychotic episode. Paniccia was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia months before the killing. Paniccia told doctors that he heard voices telling him to kill his grandmother because she was reading his thoughts. Nicholas Paniccia was hospitalized before killing his grandmother, after a psychotic episode in which he injured his father. He had stopped taking anti-psychotic medication at the time when he killed his grandmother.
Source Of Information: Times- Union (NY), 7/7/07; HudsonsMostWanted.com, 7/7/07
Date: 12/2006
Location: Buffalo, Erie, NY
Summary: On December 31, 2006, an Erie County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot Roger S. Duchnik after he repeatedly lunged at the deputy and his partner with a hunting knife. The person making the complaint described Duchnik, 52, as mentally ill and off his medication.
Source Of Information: Buffalo News, January 1 & 3, 2007
Date: 1/2007
Location: Brooklyn, Kings, NY
Summary: In January 2007, Blondel Lassegue, an emotionally disturbed Brooklyn man, died of a heart attack after being Maced and Tasered by the police. A relative called the police when Lassegue was acting up at his uncle’s house in Queens, saying he was depressed and delusional, he had recently gone off medication for bipolar disorder and depression.
Source Of Information: Gothamist, January 8, 2007; Precinct Flushing Times, January 25, 2007
Date: 2/2007
Location: Hicksville, Nassau, NY
Summary: On February 17, 2007, Harvey L. Holmes III, 42, allegedly committed a series of assaults, including an attack on an 11-year-old girl. Harvey L. Holmes, Jr., said that his son is not a sexual predator but suffers from mental illness and should not have been released from a psychiatric ward. The elder Holmes acknowledged that what his son had done was wrong. But he said there was another side to the story. “He’s very mentally ill, and the system has really not helped him.” His son, the elder Holmes said, had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia and was hospitalized at Nassau University Medical Center’s psychiatric unit on December 30 but later released on January 25. He said that his son should never have been out.
Source Of Information: Local CBS, 2/19/07
Date: 5/2007
Location: Mount Vernon, Westchester, NY
Summary: On May 9, 3007, the 24-year-old grandson of Mayor Ernest Davis was arrested after he tried to rob a man on a southside street and then escape in a cab. The mayor said his grandson has bipolar disorder, often does not take his medication and resorts to drinking
Source Of Information: The Journal News, 5/10/07; Hudson Journal News, 9/10/08
Date: 2/2010
Location: Bronx, Bronx, NY
Summary: On February 21, 2010, Satnam Singh, 32, was killed by two police who caught him bashing his mother in the head with a frying pan. Singh, sources said, was bipolar.
Source Of Information: NY Daily News, 2/22/10
Date: 4/2010
Location: West Seneca, Erie, NY
Summary: On April 25, 2010, 56-year-old Jerome Brylski, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, initiated a shoot out with police. West Seneca police pulled over the car he was riding in. Brylski jumped out of the back seat, police said, and opened fire with a rifle on the four officers at the scene. Brylski and Edwards, who drove the car, both were struck at least twice and were taken to Erie County Medical Center, the chief said. For years, Jerome Brylski had managed to function, despite the mental illness that seemed to transform everyday events into what he believed was further evidence of a government conspiracy against him. His grown children said they had been trying for more than a year to get authorities to intervene and get their father the help he needed for his paranoid schizophrenia. “This could have been prevented, had the system not failed me and my family. It took something that escalated into a shootout to get someone to listen,” one of his daughters said. “We begged the courts to get him a mental health evaluation. They never pursued it. He never went.” Brylski had gotten into a number of scrapes with police within the past year, his children said, and at each point along the way, his family tried to get him the help he needed. They said the system failed, and Brylski just got sicker, refusing medication and counseling. At one point last year, his family had him committed to a psychiatric ward. He got out less than two weeks later and wasn’t taking his medication.
Source Of Information: Buffalo News, 4/27/10
Date: 5/2010
Location: Manhattan, New York, NY
Summary: On May 11, 2010, 33-year-old Devi Silvia threw her 19-month-old child into the Hudson River before jumping in herself. Silvia had been undergoing treatment and entered into an insanity plea deal in December with prosecutors. The judge told Silvia she must continue treatment, stay on her medication and provide status reports to the court.
Source Of Information: Associated Press, 5/12/10; WABC-TV NY, 6/21/10; New York Post, 6/22/10; DNA Info, 11/21/11, 2/10/12
Date: 6/2010
Location: Elmont, Nassau, NY
Summary: On June 23, 2010, 24-year-old Dario Ormejuste fatally shot his brother, Guerby Ormejuste, a Rikers Island correction officer, with his automatic service weapon. He used the same gun to kill their father, Bob, police said. Law enforcement officials said Dario Ormejuste has emotional problems that may include schizophrenia.
Source Of Information: WPIX.com, 6/23/10; NYDailyNews.com, 6/24/10; LongIslandPress.com, 6/24/10
Date: 12/2009
Location: East Fishkill, Dutchess, NY
Summary: On December 13, 2009, 28-year-old Alex Schewtschenko fatally stabbed his adopted mother, 68-year-old Marie Schewtschenko. On July 12, 2010, a judge ruled 29-year-old Alex Schewtschenko was mentally ill when he stabbed his 68-year-old mother to death. Schewtschenko admitted to killing his mother in the home they shared. Two psychiatrists who examined Schewtschenko following his arrest agreed he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
Source Of Information: Midhudsonnews.com, 12/14/09; poughkeepsiejournal.com, 7/12/10, 7/13/10
Date: 7/2010
Location: Poestenkill, Rensselaer, NY
Summary: On July 13, 2010, 70-year-old Robert Pryor Sr. called his daughter, 49-year-old Laurie Fisher, and his granddaughter’s boyfriend, 24-year-old Anthony Delgado, home from a trip to a local grocery store and then shot them both in the chest as they came through the front door. Authorities had no motive other than that they believe Pryor may have battled mental illness.
Source Of Information: TimesUnion.Com, 7/14/10; cbs6albany.com, 7/14/10
Date: 7/2010
Location: Manhattan, New York C, NY
Summary: On July 19, 2010, 33-year-old Julian Kurita fatally stabbed his father, 70-year-old Fumitaka “Frank” Kurita in the neck in the family’s apartment and then slashed his own wrist. Joan Morrow, a retired preschool teacher who lived one floor below the Kurita family, said Julian Kurita left college after a bout with mental illness. She said she believed he had struggled with schizophrenia since his early 20s.
Source Of Information: DNAinfo.com, 7/19/10; NYDailyNews.com, 7/20/10
Date: 7/2010
Location: Buffalo, Erie, NY
Summary: On July 31, 2010, 26-year-old Keith John, an inmate at the Erie County Holding Center, committed suicide. Family members said John was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. Family members said John had been arrested before and there should have been a record of his struggle with mental illness and the anti-psychotic medication he was taking every two weeks to control it.
Source Of Information: WIVB, 8/02/10; WKBW.com, 8/2/10
Date: 9/2010
Location: Buffalo, Erie, NY
Summary: On September 21, 2010, 60-year-old Melvin McLean, a Buffalo Psychiatric Center patient, was found unresponsive in Hoyt Lake at Delaware Park. Witnesses at the park told police McLean was acting irrationally, jumped into the water and attempted to swim across the lake before he started drowning. State psychiatric officials declined to comment on McLean’s case
Source Of Information: WIVB.com, 9/22/10; BuffaloNews.com, 9/21/10, 9/23/10
Date: 12/2009
Location: Vestal, Broome, NY
Summary: On December 4, 2009, 46-year-old Bingham University student Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, fatally stabbed 77-year-old Professor Richard T. Antoun in his university office. In a July 21, 2010 filing, Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani’s defense attorney reported he had been suffering from Schizoaffective Disorder for a long time and lacked capacity to know or appreciate the nature and consequences of his conduct.
Source Of Information: The New York Times, 12/5/09; PressConnects.com, 9/27/10
Date: 10/2010
Location: Long Island, Queens, NY
Summary: On October 8, 2010, 23-year-old Evan Sachs crept up behind an 8-year-old boy playing a video game at a restaurant, put a hand on his shoulder and plunged a 4-inch blade into his back five times as witnesses watched in horror. Police said Evan Sachs had been hunting for a child to kill for weeks. Sachs’ attorney, Charles Rosenblum, told reporters his client has been under psychiatric care and recently had medications changed.
Source Of Information: MyFoxNY, 10/09/10; CBSNews.com, 10/12/10
Date: 10/2010
Location: Staten Island, Richmond, NY
Summary: On either October 12 or 13, 2010, 30-year-old Eric Bellucci, diagnosed with Schizophrenia, stabbed his parents to death in their Staten Island Home. Following his capture, the delusional Bellucci told authorities that he was there to avenge his parents’ deaths and find the Mossad agent who killed them. His sister told police cops her brother was furious because she and her parents were trying to get him help. Prior History: Belluci was diagnosed with Schizophrenia surfaced after college, causing him to be hospitalized twice. He became delusional and violent and often turned his rage on his family. His mental demons worsened in recent months as he refused to take his medication, relatives said.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 10/15/10, 10/17/10; New York, CBS 2, 10/19/10; Daily Press (VA), 10/16/10; HealthCentral.com, 10/16/10; NY1, 4/28/11; Staten Island Advance, 5/11/11, 9/9/11; Staten Island Shore, 7/22/11
Date: 11/2010
Location: Long Island, Queens, NY
Summary: On November 20, 2010, 48-year-old Thomas Scimone, was armed with a shotgun and threatened to kill firefighters was shot by police as he ran from his burning home. He was in critical condition following the incident. A relative said she believed Scimone was not taking his medication for bipolar disorder. The incident began when Scimone set a fire in his living room. Police said he then threatened to gun down responding firefighters. He jumped out of a window and ran through the neighborhood with his shotgun. Police gave chase. On November 25, 2010 Scimone, who had been in critical condition following the incident, died at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center.
Source Of Information: NY Daily News, 11/21/10; NBCNewYork.com, 11/21/10, 11/26/10
Date: 9/2010
Location: Greece, Monroe, NY
Summary: On September 29, 2010, 23-year-old Kurt Neusatz fatally stabbed his mother, 53-year-old Monica Neusatz in their home. When policed arrived, they found Monica’s body in an upstairs bedroom. Kurt was found on the front porch with self-inflicted stab wounds on his neck. His family reported he had been treated for schizophrenia since the age of 17.
Source Of Information: 13WHAM.com, 9/30/10; DemocratandChronicle.com, 12/1/10; Associated Press, 1/4/11; GreecePost.com, 1/4/11
Date: 4/2009
Location: West Seneca, Erie, NY
Summary: On April 19, 2009, 31-year-old Corey P. Cochran stabbed his 6- year-old son Dalton in the chest. The incident ended when Cohran’s wife, Rebecca, managed to get the knife from him, stab him several times, and flee the house with their four children to a neighbor’s home. On March 7, 2011, Corey P. Cochran, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, pleaded not guilty to because of mental disease or defect to attempted murder charges. Both defense and prosecution mental health experts found that Cochran was suffering from auditory hallucinations and ideas about gaining immortality by cutting out his son’s heart when he attacked his son.
Source Of Information: Buffalo News, 4/21/09, 3/7/11, 7/8/11
Date: 7/2010
Location: Katonah, Westchester, NY
Summary: On July 31, 2010, 39-year-old Lisa Turkki stabbed her two nieces several times while babysitting them in their parents’ home. Turkki called police and told authorities what he had done. On April 18, 2011, 40-year-old Lisa Turkki was found not responsible because of mental illness. Turkki said she was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and may have missed some medications. She had battled mental illness since she was 15. Psychologists determined Turkki suffered from schizoaffective disorder of a bipolar type.
Source Of Information: CBSNews.com, 8/2/10; MSNBC.com, 8/2/10; Wall Street Journal, 4/18/11; lohud.com, 6/3/11
Date: 5/2011
Location: Syracuse, Onondaga, NY
Summary: On May 5, 2011, 55-year-old Benjamin Campione was fatally shot by police near the Regional Transportation Center. According to police, when Campione was confronted by Officers, he pulled a pellet gun that looked exactly like a Smith & Wesson revolver from his waistband and pointed it at Officers prompting them to open fire. Campione’s two cousins said he suffered from mental illness and was often homeless, wandering the streets of Syracuse. Campione’s brother said he’d been to police three times in the past year, alerting them that his younger brother wasn’t taking his medication and was slipping deeper into paranoid schizophrenia. Campione had a history of stopping his medication and acting bizarrely.
Source Of Information: CYNcentral.com, 5/5/11, 5/8/11; The Post-Standard, 5/7/11
Date: 7/2011
Location: New York, New York, NY
Summary: On July 3, 2011, 41-year-old Jonathan Schwartz fatally stabbed his 67-year-old mother, Barbara Schwartz, in the neck and torso. Jonathan Schwartz called 911 twice after killing his mother, first to admit the crime, then to retract the confession. Jonathan Schwartz who suffers from schizophrenia, may not have been on his meds.
Source Of Information: CBSNewYork.com, 7/3/11; New York Post, 7/4/11
Date: 2/2011
Location: Syracuse, Onondago, NY
Summary: On February 1, 2011, 19-year-old Ravaun Mitchell was shot by Syracuse police after he refused to drop a knife. On June 29, 2011, a judge ruled that Mitchell was still mentally ill and dangerous.
Source Of Information: 9WSYR.com, 2/24/11; The Post-Standard, 6/29/11
Date: 11/2009
Location: Valley Cottage, Rockland, NY
Summary: On November 29, 2009, 32-year-old Jami Erlich was was beaten and stabbed to death inside her condo. Two days later, 32-year-old Eric Lau was arrested and charged with her death. He had a long history of mental illness and violence
Source Of Information: Zimbio.com, 11/30/09; NYDailyNews.com, 12/2/09; LoHud News, 7/7/11, 11/11/11, 1/25/12; The Journal News, 9/26/11
Date: 8/2009
Location: Schenectady, Schenectady, NY
Summary: On August 1, 2009, 25-year-old James Tomlin, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was fatally shot by a Schenectady police officer. Police said the incident occurred when Tomlin first approached a woman on her porch and demanded a cigarette at knifepoint. He also attempted several carjackings, threatening people with a large butcher knife. When officers caught up with him, they tried to get him to drop the knife. When Tomlin lunged at Officer Ed Ritz, Ritz shot him.. Tomlin’s mother told the DA that her son, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was not on his medication at the time of the incident, according to the report.
Source Of Information: CapitalRegion.ynn.com, 8/4/09; Times Union, 7/7/11
Date: 12/2009
Location: Bronx, Bronx, NY
Summary: On December 17, 2009 30-year-old Vladimir Makarov, suffering from depression and paranoia, went to the roof of his grandmother’s 24-story building and leapt to his death. Makarov’s suicide occurred only days after he was released from Montefiore Medical Center. He told doctors he was hearing voices commanding him to jump off a building. On July 8, 2011, Makarov’s mother sued Montefiore Medical Center for letting him leave the hospital’s psychiatric unit despite signs he was suicidal. According to the suit, five days before his discharge, Makarov told doctors, “I lack the will to live. I feel nothing.” Then he stopped taking his medication.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 7/19/11
Date: 7/2011
Location: Brooklyn, Kings, NY
Summary: On July 11, 2011, 35-year-old Levi Aron abducted and murdered 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky. Aron confessed to suffocating the boy with a bath towel and then cutting up the body. Subsequently, the Medical Examiner reported that Leiby had been drugged before he was smothered to death, including with a drug used to treat schizophrenia, the medical examiner said. Aron was sent to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. His lawyers said he hears voices and sees hallucinations.
Source Of Information: NewYorkDailyNews.com, 7/14/11; ABCNews.com, 7/14/11; MSNBC, 7/20/11; New York Post, 8/11/11
Date: 7/2011
Location: Bronx, Bronx, NY
Summary: On July 22, 2011, 42-year-old Richard Arrocho forced his way into a train driver’s compartment on the New York subway and threatened to stab him with a screwdriver. According to witnesses, Arrocho was yelling that somebody was trying to kill him. Authorities said that Arrocho has a history of mental illness and has spent some time in a psychiatric ward.
Source Of Information: UK Daily Mail, 7/26/11; CBSNewYork.com, 7/26/11
Date: 7/2008
Location: Elbridge, Onondaga, NY
Summary: On July 20, 2008, Joseph Bisesi III, a seriously mentally ill man, shot and killed his parents, JoEllen and Joseph Bisesi Jr. in their Elbridge home. Shortly after state police discovered the victims’ bodies on July 22, Bisesi showed up at the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Syracuse to turn himself in. Bisesi immediately told authorities what he had done, asking them to contact “military intelligence” for him. On November 24, 2008, Joseph Bisesi III, 27, stood in court and admitted without any show of emotion that he shot and killed JoEllen and Joseph Bisesi Jr. in their Elbridge home in July. To the outside world, they were his parents. But in Bisesi’s world, they were “Admiral Young” and “Mrs. Kelly,” a couple masquerading as his parents after his real parents were murdered by organized crime when he was kidnapped as a child. Doctors who examined Bisesi for the defense and prosecution agreed he was acting under those delusions and that he was seriously mentally ill at the time he killed his parents on July 20. Defense lawyer Randi Bianco said Bisesi still believed that he was an undercover operative carrying out CIA orders to kill the victims before they could kill him. Dr. James Knoll, a psychiatrist who examined Bisesi for the prosecution, concluded he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, she said. One hour before Bisesi killed his parents, he phoned a relative about having received two cell phone calls from the CIA directing him to kill the couple before they killed him, Bianco said.
Source Of Information: Syracuse Post Standard, 11/25/08
Date: 1/2009
Location: Westmoreland, Oneida, NY
Summary: On January 19, 2009, Ryan Peeler, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, allegedly beat his mother, Rhonda M. DuPont, 51, to death in his room at the Gallopin’ Acres Motel in Westmoreland. Peeler, 27, had become more violent and erratic as his mental state deteriorated late last year. Roughly three or four years ago, Peeler was hospitalized at Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare for mental issues, Griffith said. Peeler was then hospitalized at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica as more incidents followed. That’s when Peeler was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. On February 12, 2009, Ryan Peeler was transferred to a downstate mental hospital after a judge ruled he does not understand the charges he faces At the time of the killing, Peeler had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been living at a Westmoreland motel, police and relatives have said. The night she was slain, DuPont had gone to Peeler’s motel room to deliver dinner. Peeler attacked DuPont because he believed that her feet were sucking oxygen from the room, Nebush said.
Source Of Information: Utica Observer Dispatch, 1/20/09, 1/22/09, 1/26/09, 2/18/09, 2/24/09, 5/22/09; Syracuse Post Standard, 1/21/09
Date: 5/2008
Location: Rochester, Monroe, NY
Summary: On May 1, 2008, John W. Sterling III stabbed a policeman in the arm who was responding to a 9-11 call from Sterling’s mother. Officer Robert Osipovitch was stabbed after Rural/Metro personnel and police went to Sterling’s home on a call that Sterling, who lived there with his mother, was having severe emotional problems. After the mother of John W. Sterling III called 911 for help with her agitated son, who had a history of schizophrenia, police failed to send a team that deals with the mentally ill and had been to Sterling’s home previously, said Assistant Public Defender Joshua Stubbe. Stubbe said Osipovitch hastily entered Sterling’s Before sentence was imposed, Sterling apologized for the stabbing and said he had not been taking medication for his illness.
Source Of Information: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. 2/6/09
Date: 2/2009
Location: East Harlem, New York, NY
Summary: On February 16, 2009, 14-month-old Heshesh Brent was reunited with his mother after he had been missing for nearly 24 hours from his mother’s East Harlem apartment. A few hours later, after being questioned by detectives, 18-year-old Niasia Hicks was led away from the 25th precinct in handcuffs. She faces charges of kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child. Hicks had asked to watch the 14-month-old baby, according to his grandmother, Yaya Brent. Hicks’ mother told NY1 that the 18-year-old suffers from schizophrenia and had been off her medications for the last six months. The Hicks family says this was all a mistake and that Niasia “needs to be in the hospital, not central booking.”
Source Of Information: NY1.com, 2/17/09
Date: 1/2009
Location: Rochester, Monroe, NY
Summary: On January 31, 2009, 14 year-old Tyquan Rivera allegedly shot Officer Anthony DiPonzio in the back of the head on Dayton Street. Tyquan turns 15 years old on February 18. A doctor diagnosed Tyquan as being bipolar, but he would not take medication.
Source Of Information: 13WHAM.com, 2/18/09
Date: 10/2008
Location: White Plains, Westchester, NY
Summary: On October 19, 2008, 37-year-old Sheldene Campbell intentionally drove her vehicle into 65-year-old Marie Bucci killing the older woman. Two weeks before her arrest in White Plains, Campbell spent a week under observation in a New Jersey hospital after she was arrested by Woodcliff Lakes, NJ police. In that incident, she drove onto a lawn, almost hitting a jogger, and assaulted a police officer while her 3-year-old daughter sat in the car without a seat belt. Campbell’s lawyer said that in the weeks between her arrests in New Jersey and White Plains, she began hearing voices and having religious hallucinations but refused to take psychiatric medication because she was in denial about her illness. Campbell’s attorney said she had been at the county jail since her arrest and was being medicated and treated for catatonic schizophrenia.
Source Of Information: Lower Hudson Journal News, 3/7/09, 3/12/09, 7/30/09; LoHud.com, 11/29/11, 12/20/11
Date: 8/2011
Location: New York, New York, NY
Summary: On August 10, 2011, 23-year-old Jorge Ruiz threatened to jump off the 70th-story ledge of the 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The drama unfolded for almost an hour before police talked Ruiz back to the observation deck. . Ruiz, who suffers from schizophrenia, told cops he was distraught that a book he wrote wouldn’t be published, sources said. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 8/11/11
Date: 9/2011
Location: Homer, Cortland, NY
Summary: On September 21, 2011, 30-year-old Geoffrey J. Thompson attacked 36-year-old Abdul M. Mumin, a cab driver, as Mumin was driving him from New York City to Buffalo. Thompson choked Mumin so hard his eyes began to bleed. Before the incident, Thompson’s mother had reported him missing to Amherst police. She told police that Thompson is bipolar.
Source Of Information: Buffalo News, 9/24/11
Date: 3/2011
Location: Buffalo, Erie, NY
Summary: During the period between March 28 and 29, 2011, 50-year-old Brian Rossel fatally beat and strangled his 84-year-old father, Donald Rossel. On October 18, 2011, a judge ruled that Brian Rossel was mentally incapacitated and should be committed for up to a year based upon two mental health evaluations. Rossel was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
Source Of Information: WIVB.com, 7/8/11; Buffalo News, 10/19/11
START HERE SHORTEN
Date: 12/2011
Location: New York, New York, NY
Summary: On December 4, 2011, 40-year-old Steven Angelides walked into a New York police station saying he was a terrorist and had a plastic bag holding a propane tank rigged to look like a bomb. Angelides said more explosive devices were inside a blue van parked in front of an apartment building owned by Angelides’s family. The bomb squad responded to the building and found the van but no explosives. Angelides’ family told police that he suffered from bipolar disorder and hadn’t taken his medication for at least a week.
Source Of Information: Wall Street Journal, 12/5/11
Date: 2/2011
Location: Auburn, Cayuga, NY
Summary: On February 23, 2011, Peter Harris approached a man at a gas station and asked him for a ride around midnight. When the man refused, Harris shoved him and ripped the fuel door cover off his car. Harris’ victim attempted to run into the store but Harris pursued and attacked his victim both outside and inside the store. Harris smashed out the man’s window, slashed three of his car tires, and threatened him with a knife. Harris’ suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was not taking his medication at the time of the gas station incident.
Source Of Information: Auburn Pub, 12/9/11
Date: 12/2011
Location: Spring Valley, Rockland, NY
Summary: On December 14, 2011, 48-year-old Herve Gilles was fatally shot during a fight with a police officer. Authorities said Gilles was violent and armed with a stick. Gilles’ friends said he was a chronically mentally ill man who could get out of control when drunk or off his medications. The officer was taken to the hospital where he was treated for lacerations and bite marks.
Source Of Information: LoHud.com, 12/15/11
Date: 8/2011
Location: Buffalo, Erie, NY
Summary: On August 22, 2011, 32-year-old Jawain Wilson fatally stabbed 21-year-old Joshua Thomas. The two were working at a Goodwill Industries Store when they got into an argument Wilson, diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia, was off his medication at the time of the incident.
Source Of Information: WKBW.com, 8/22/11, 1/5/12
Date: 1/2012
Location: Orchard Park, Erie, NY
Summary: On January 23, 2012, 43-year-old Gregory J. Seifert was arrested for using a chain-saw to cut down five transmission and utility poles, knocking out electrical power to 6,300 customers in the Southtowns. Seifert’s brother said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and refused to take his medications. A few weeks before Seifert was arrested, he was a patient at Lake Shore Hospital’s psychiatric facility in Irving but was released over the objections of his psychiatrist, his brother said. Seifert was hospitalized at the Lake Shore facility after he set the house on fire. Seifert’s brother said the family had been unsuccessful in trying to keep him institutionalized. He added that the family also tried to obtain a court order that would require Seifert to take his medicines. In 2007, Seifert was a patient at the state’s Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center after he set his sport utility vehicle on fire in Buffalo.
Source Of Information: Buffalo News, 1/26/12
Date: 4/2009
Location: Manhattan, New York, NY
Summary: On April 27, 2009, Ex-Nets star Jayson Williams became ‘suicidal’ at Manhattan hotel and was tasered by NYPD police. When police arrived at the hotel, they found a suicidal and violent Williams along with empty bottles of two psychiatric drugs that could have exacerbated his mental illness if taken together. Williams, 41, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the runup to his 2004 trial for fatally shooting his chauffeur.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 4/29/09
Date: 4/2009
Location: Binghamton, Broome, NY
Summary: On April 3, 2009, Jiverly Wong barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class, killing 13 people before committing suicide, officials said. . On the day of the killings, Wong mailed a letter to a Binghamton TV station, along with his driver’s license, gun permit, and photos of him posing with pistols. The letter unleashes a slew of bizarre, paranoid accusations against police officers whom Wong, 41, believed were persecuting him, repeatedly saying breaking into his room, stealing from him, causing him to lose his job and trying to stage a car accident with him. The missive, whose claims are unsupported by any publicly known facts, suggests Wong was deranged.
Source Of Information: KDA2, 4/3/09; New York Post, 4/6/09
Date: 5/2009
Location: Searingtown, Nassau, NY
Summary: On May 13, 2009, Kay Barragan, the wife of 1-800-Mattress mogul Napoleon Barragan, was murdered in her Long Island home, allegedly by her mentally troubled son, police said. Eduardo’s sister, Kay Otilia Massel, 42, called her brother “a good man who has suffered for 19 years with schizophrenia.” On November 5, 2009, Nassau County Judge David Sullivan found Eduardo Barragan unfit to stand trial for the May murder of his mother, and sent him to a secure upstate psychiatric facility indefinitely.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, 5/14/09, 5/15/09; Newsday, 11/6/09
Date: 11/2011
Location: Brooklyn, Kings, NY
Summary: On November 27, 2011, 20-year-old Renado Ward fatally stabbed his mother, 47-year-old Chruminline Ward, in front of her grandchildren. The children were not hurt in the incident. Renado Ward, who had a history of mental illness, had been released from a psych ward of Kings County Hospital six days before the incident. Following the incident, he was returned back to the hospital.
Source Of Information: New York Post, 11/28/11
Date: 7/2011
Location: Utica, Oneida, NY
Summary: On July 19, 2011, 30-year-old David. L. Trebilcock fatally stabbed 6-year-old Lauren Belius, while her twin sister Erica watched. Trebilcock cut his own wrists and stabbed himself in the chest after he attacked the child. On February 14, 2012, a judge found Trebilcock not criminally responsible for fatally stabbing Lauren due to mental disease or defect. Trebilcock suffered from paranoid schizophrenia with a poor prognosis.
Source Of Information: OneidaDispatch.com, 7/21/11; New York, Observer-Dispatch, 2/14/12
Date: 7/2005
Location: Queens Village, Queens, NY
Summary: Billy Audobon, a 28-year-old man with a history of mental illness and substance abuse, was shot in the arm by a police officer on July 3, 2005 after the man’s family called 911 saying he was acting erratically. According to his family, Audubon, who has bipolar disorder,
Source Of Information: Stamford Advocate, July 4, 2005
Date: 7/2005
Location: Queens Village, Queens, NY
Summary: Police identified Kevin Davy, 25, as a man with psychiatric problems who critically wounded two officers when they responded to a call that someone was attacking a religious statue outside a Queens Village, NY church with a sword and a shotgun. Relatives said Davy suffers from bipolar disorder, and had not been taking his medication.
Source Of Information: New York Times, July 18, 2005; Daily News, July 18, 2005; Queens Chronicle, September 15, 2005
Date: 9/2005
Location: New York, , NY
Summary: On September 7, 2005, Bernard Derr stabbed a 10-month-old baby in the stomach as the child was sitting in her stroller, out for a walk with her nanny on the streets of upper Manhattan. Police said Derr had never been arrested but had a psychiatric history.
Source Of Information: The New York Times, September 9, 2005; Long Island Newsday, September 9, 2005; The New York Times, September 10, 2005
Date: 9/2005
Location: New York, , NY
Summary: Altagracia Rodriguez, a mentally ill woman who allegedly kidnapped four-year-old Josue Polanco from his mother at a New York City restaurant on September 8, 2005, had her own two children taken away by officials and she wanted a child to replace them, relatives said. Rodriguez suffers from schizophrenia and had stopped taking her medication, according to relatives, who called police to report the kidnapping
Source Of Information: Washington Times, September 11, 2005; Stamford Advocate, September 10, 2005
Date: 7/2005
Location: Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, NY
Summary: Roger Woodson, 47, a homeless Poughkeepsie man, was sent to a secure mental hospital after a judge ruled he was not legally responsible for a knife attack on Alvin Diaz on July 23, 2005. Woodson could give no reason for the attack. Diaz sustained wounds to his wrist, legs and chest, Chase said.A court appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Claude Schleuderer, found that Woodson suffers from schizophrenia.
Source Of Information: Poughkeepsie Journal, December 24, 2005
Date: 2/2006
Location: Bronx, Bronx, NY
Summary: Michael Harris, 24, attacked his 18-month-old nephew Priest Jefferson and the baby’s parents after beating his own mother with a hammer inside their apartment on February 13, 2006. Family members and sources said Harris was bipolar and taken out of an institution recently by his mother, 49-year-old Charlene Harris, a deeply religious woman and tenant association president. “He was supposed to be taking his pills. He just went berserk,” said Carolyn Harris, his aunt. Harris had to be forcibly removed from the family’s home in 2004, a source said.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, February 14, 2006
Date: 2/2006
Location: Staten Island, Richmond, NY
Summary: Stephanie Lindboe, 65, was fatally shot after lunging at a a police sergeant who was responding to a disturbance call at her Staten Island apartment building on February 16, 2006. Ms. Lindboe, who had been hospitalized repeatedly for a psychiatric condition and had been known throughout the building for erratic behavior, had just stabbed a neighbor at least eight times when the sergeant and four other police officers confronted her, the authorities said.
Source Of Information: New York Times, February 17, 2006
Date: 11/2005
Location: Clifton Park, Saratoga, NY
Summary: Forty-year-old Ann Elizabeth Halstead of Clifton Park was last seen on November 23. After Halstead did not attend Thanksgiving dinner or return telephone messages, her family called the police on Friday and reported Halstead as missing. Halstead’s car was spotted Saturday night in a parking lot near the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve along the Erie Canal and Mohawk River. About 200 people searched for Halstead in the preserve’s 1,000 acres. Investigators say that Halstead, who also goes by the name off Ann Livingston, suffers from depression and is schizophrenic. She is not being treated for those ailments.
Source Of Information: WTEN-TV, November 27, 2005
Date: 11/2006
Location: Manorville, Suffolk, NY
Summary: On November 18, 2006, Carolyn Buonnano was arrested after fatally stabbing her husband, Raymond, 43, three times on the neck before slitting her own throat in a botched suicide attempt. On February 11, 2008, in a deal with prosecutors, Buonnano, 39, entered a plea of not responsible by reason of mental disease in Suffolk County Court. Assistant District Attorney Nancy Clifford said Buonnano was “unable to appreciate the nature of what she did.”
Source Of Information: Newsday, 2/12/08
Date: 2/2008
Location: New York, New York, NY
Summary: On February 12, 2008, Kathryn Faughey, a psychologist, was fatally stabbed in her Manhattan office as she saw patients late into the evening. Faughey was stabbed 15 times. Dr. Kent Shinbach, who shared a suite with Faughey and tried to help, was also stabbed but recovered from his wounds. On February 16, 2008, 39-year-old David Tarloff, who was treated for schizophrenia at a Staten Island psychiatric facility, was arrested for the murder of Dr. Kathryn Faughey after investigators matched his palm prints with those at the bloody crime scene where Dr. Faughey was killed. Robert Tarloff, Tarloff’s brother said his own family had unsuccessfully tried to keep his brother institutionalized. “My father and I and our mother all tried our best to keep him [David] in the facilities that he was hospitalized in over the many, many years of his illness, and they kept releasing him even after we’ve told them what has been going on with his situation,” Robert Tarloff said. “We did the best that we could asking them to keep him in there and they didn’t.” At his February 17, arraignment, David Tarloff was all but incoherent during the five-minute proceeding in Manhattan Criminal Court. According to a health care professional at Staten Island University Hospital where Tarloff was treated for schizophrenia last summer, Tarloff’s mental illness has landed him in court before. The source said Tarloff had been a patient at the psychiatric ward in the Ocean Breeze facility for as many as seven months last year, and on several occasions, court orders had be obtained in Supreme Court in St. George, so doctors could administer medication to treat his schizophrenia. On October 14, 2008, Justice Charles H. Solomon of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled that David Tarloff was mentally unfit to stand trial, and ordered that he be sent to a state psychiatric institution.
Source Of Information: Newsday, 2/14/08, 2/15/08; New York Daily News, 2/18/08, 6/10/08, 10/15/08, 4/8/10; Times News (NC), 2/18/08, 2/20/08, 6/11/08; Staten Island Advance, 2/18/08; New York Times, 2/19/08, 4/16/08, 10/7/08, 10/17/10; WNBC TV, 2/19/08; NY Post, 2/22/08
Date: 2/2008
Location: Massena, Saint Lawrence, NY
Summary: On January 31, 2008, Harry Klages II, 25, allegedly attacked Andrew W. Lesperance, 51, with a knife leaving the man barely clinging to life in the younger man’s South Main Street apartment. Klages brutally mutilated Lesperance by gouging out his eyeball, cutting off his genitals and slicing into his other eye and abdomen. Harry E. Klages II exhibited evidence of mental illness “since he was a small child” and, at age 17, was being treated for alcohol problems said his father, Harry E. Klages Sr. Klages was learning-disabled since childhood and suffered from schizophrenia at an early age, said his father. “Every six months or a year he was sent to rehab by me until he moved out,” Mr. Klages said. “They said he had serious mental health problems then.” Mrs. Klages, who moved into the household about five years ago, said she knew right from the start that Klages was deeply troubled. “He drew demonic, ghoulish pictures … his entire room, the walls were painted with ghoulish things,” Mrs. Klages said. “The movies he watched, the music he listened to, was all violent. It was horrific stuff. He has tattoos all over him that are ghoulish.
Source Of Information: The Capital, 2/18/08; Watertown Daily Times, 4/29/09
Date: 2/2008
Location: New Cassel, Nassau, NY
Summary: On February 24, 2008, Leatrice Brewer, described as emotionally disturbed and afraid of losing custody of her children called the police and led them into a blood-spattered bedroom where her young daughter and two small sons lay slain on a bed, investigators said. Relatives and acquaintances described Ms. Brewer as emotionally unstable. The two fathers of the children said they had tried through the courts to gain custody. Ricky Ward said “She wasn’t stable and wasn’t able to communicate. She didn’t want anyone to have her kids. It’s a tragedy that my daughter’s gone.” Some neighbors said Ms. Brewer had behaved bizarrely. “I used to see her walking down the street during the day in her pajamas,” said Lisa Jones, who said she was a distant relative of Ms. Brewer. Asked if Ms. Brewer had seemed mentally unstable, Ms. Jones said, “Absolutely.”
Source Of Information: NY Times, 2/25/08
Date: 2/2008
Location: Queensbury, Warren, NY
Summary: On February 26, 2008, Stanley W. Chrostowski, 50, died after being struck by a tractor trailer. Investigators said he was driving southbound in the northbound lanes of the Northway when his car hit the truck head-on. : Chrostowski had an extensive history of treatment for mental illness, and investigators were looking into whether he intentionally drove in the wrong lane in an effort to commit suicide. Two neighbors of Chrostowski who said he had recently stopped taking his medication for mental illness said they believed he committed suicide. One said he had made a comment Monday that she would have a “new neighbor soon.”
Source Of Information: Glenn Falls Post Star, 2/26/08
Date: 5/2006
Location: Yonkers, Westchester, NY
Summary: Robert Gjonlekaj, 35, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. On May 28, 2006, Gjonlekaj kicked a 6-year-old girl in the face at a supermarket in Yonkers, NY. The youngster was treated at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville for bruising and swelling to the left side of her face. Gjonlekaj’s mother later told police that her son was treated at the Bronx Psychiatric Center for schizophrenia for three years.
Source Of Information: New York Journal News, May 31, 2006
Date: 12/2005
Location: , Putnam, NY
Summary: The friends of a 51-year-old village man who was found dead in Putnam County that they worried about his mental health and wanted him to get help before he hurt himself. Village resident David Gassner and his friend Jeff Schribman said they were both close to Edward B. Devanney Jr., whose body was discovered along a wooded trail in the Brewster Heights section of Southeast, Gassner, 58, who had lived with Devanney for the past five years, said he was concerned for some time that Devanney’s condition, which he said was schizophrenia, was getting worse.
Source Of Information: New York Journal News – December 20, 2005
Date: 1/2005
Location: Riverside, Steuben, NY
Summary: During the early morning hours of Jan. 13, 2005, James Russell testified that he had been off his medications and sleepless for four nights when he picked up a newspaper and saw the image of a demon on the sports page. Believing that the demon had made its way into the body of his brother’s girlfriend, Carole Roth, Russell plunged several sharp objects into Roth’s throat 45 minutes later, killing her. In July 2006, a Suffolk County Court judge accepted his plea of not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease. Russell said a few weeks before the slaying, he began reading the Bible and stopped taking his medications for bipolar disorder because he felt the Holy Spirit inside him. Russell said after being alarmed by the newspaper photo of the New York Yankees pitcher, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went after his brother, convinced that he had been possessed. William Russell fled the apartment to call the police, leaving Roth alone with his brother. “In my head, I thought the devil had jumped from my brother into her,” Russell said. When police found Roth, she had three knives, a pair of scissors and a barbecue fork still lodged in her neck. Russell was naked when he was arrested and during his police questioning. He was arraigned in the nude at a police station house in Riverhead because he refused to wear clothes, law enforcement sources said.
Source Of Information: Newsday, August 1, 2006
Date: 6/2006
Location: Canarsie, Kings, NY
Summary: Dwayne Palmer, 32, charged with stabbing his 1-year-old daughter to death must undergo a psychiatric examination before trial, a judge ordered on August 14. Palmer was formally charged in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn with second-degree murder and attempted murder in an attack on his companion, Natasha Martin, and their daughter, Samara Palmer, in Ms. Martin’s apartment in Canarsie early on June 19, during the night after Father’s Day. Palmer’s lawyer, Michael A. Millet, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf and requested the psychiatric tests. The lawyer described a series of hospital stays Mr. Palmer had undergone for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Source Of Information: New York Times, August 15, 2006
Date: 8/2006
Location: Queens, Queens, NY
Summary: Matthew Colletta, 34 was charged with second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with a six-hour shooting spree that left one person dead, at least four injured, and a trail of shattered glass and bullet-scarred vehicles across Queens. The police said that Colletta has a history of mental illness. A friend said Colletta had been taking lithium to treat paranoid schizophrenia. Greenberg said Colletta had been in and out of mental hospitals for years, including a stint at Queens’ Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. ” Todd D. Greenberg, a lawyer for Mr. Colletta, said after the arraignment that his client had a long history of mental illness and had been in and out of mental hospitals since he was 18. Mr. Colletta was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression, Greenberg said.
Source Of Information: New York Times, August 27, 28 & 30, 2006; New York Daily News, August 27 & 28, 2006; Newsday, August 27, 28 & 30, 2006; Gothamist, August 27, 2006; Houston Chronicle (AP), August 26, 2006; Boston Herald, 8/29/06; Associated Press, 9/1/06
Date: 9/2006
Location: Queens, Queens, NY
Summary: Carmine Randazzo Sr., 78, was stabbed five times in the arm, back and torso on September 16, 2006 after visiting a Queens flea market during his regular neighborhood stroll. William Scott, 28, allegedly jumped out from behind a building in Hillcrest and attacked Randazzo without provocation, a police source said. Scott, described by a relative as schizophrenic and on medication, was awaiting arraignment on charges of second-degree murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. William Scott, the alleged assailant, told investigators that voices in his head told him to attack, a source said. “The guy just went off. It was completely unprovoked. He just pulled out a knife and started screaming and stabbing,” a police source said. “It’s one of those horrible, freakish things.” He was last in a mental institution in November 2005 when he was sprung from Creedmoor Psychiatric Center after a two-year stay, sources said. Scott soon resumed his bizarre behavior, neighbors and victims said. Neighbors said they watched Scott turn from a happy-go-lucky boy into a deranged young man who would yell racial slurs at white neighbors and then attack them. There were a dozen incidents in a decade, according to police records and witness and victim accounts. Scott’s sister said her younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was in prison for robbery at age 17. He complained that people’s “spirits” were talking to him, but she usually could coax him out of his delusions, she said. “He’s no psycho, he’s my brother and he’s ill,” said Tamarra Scott. “He’s been ill for years, and at the mercy of institutions his whole life.”
Source Of Information: NY Daily News, 9/17/06, 9/18/06, 9/19/06, 9/21/06; Newsday, 9/18/06, 9/20/06; New York Post, 9/17/06 & 9/18/06
Date: 2/2006
Location: Hillsdale, Columbia, NY
Summary: On February 11, 2006, 23-year-old William S. Demagall fatally attacked retired high school teacher 56-year-old George Mancini. Mancini suffered multiple stab wounds to his chest and back but died of blunt force trauma to the head. After the murder, Demegall set the body on fire to hide evidence and left with some of Mancini’s belongings. Demagall, who has bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder, was arrested in Schodack on unrelated charges on February 13. February 3, 2006, when his strange behavior became so noticeable, his mother and grandmother applied to have him committed. He escaped the secured psychiatric facility two days before the murder by squeezing between the bars. At that time, though he was supposed to be medicated, he was evidently not taking his meds. Demagall’s father said his son suffers from Bipolar Disorder, marked by episodes of manic behavior and delusions.
Source Of Information: The Independent, 9/19/06, 12/4/06; Berkshire Eagle, 9/21/06, 11/29/06, 11/30/06, 12/6/06, 12/9/06, 12/10/06, 12/14/06, 2/6/07, 3/22/07, 3/23/07; Daily Freeman, 4/3/09; TimesUnion.com, 11/10/10, 3/23/11
Date: 3/2006
Location: Johnston, Fulton, NY
Summary: In March 2006, Jane Fletcher, 72, poisoned four German shepherds and urged her son to shoot and burn them when the poison didn’t work fast enough. Fletcher has a history of schizophrenia, has suffered from mental illness for at least 50 years.
Source Of Information: Albany Times Union, September 30, 2006
Date: 9/2006
Location: Brooklyn, Kings, NY
Summary: On September 30, 2006, Joseph Bernazard held Phyllis Fine at knifepoint and threatened to kill her on Brooklyn’s trendy restaurant row before a sharpshooter cop killed him with a single bullet. The saga began when Bernazard, who was hallucinating and hearing voices in his head, was taken to Long Island College Hospital on September 30. But he tore out his IV and walked out of the hospital against doctors’ wishes. He was still wearing his medical bracelet when he was killed. On the day of the incident, Bernazard grabbed Julie Jacobowitz, 32, a social worker talking on a cell phone with a friend as she walked home from the gym. “If they kill me, I won’t have to hurt you,” Bernazard told Jacobowitz, police sources said. But as he spoke, he was already slicing into her neck, causing her to scream in agony. A group of construction workers confronted Bernazard, who told them, “The cops are going to have to kill me.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, October 1, 2006
Date: 10/2006
Location: Long Island, Queens, NY
Summary: On October 9, 2006, Susanne Carlson, 70, was bludgeoned to death in her Long Island home by her son. Christopher Carlson, 39, dialed 911 after the attack and told police he had struck his elderly mother in the head in the bedroom of her West Islip home. Police arrived shortly after 3 a.m. and found a battered Susanne Carlson dead in her bed – beaten to death with an old-style military rifle. His attorney, Frank Murphy of Sayville, said his client suffers from depression and schizophrenia. He had run out of his medication during the past week,
Source Of Information: Newsday, October 10, 2006
Date: 10/2006
Location: Plattsburgh, Clinton, NY
Summary: On October 28, 2006, Alphegina “Gina” Snide, 72 was found dead in the bedroom of her Mooers Forks home. She died of multiple blows to the head. David D. Couture, 28, was accused of her murder. Couture was diagnosed in 2000 with severe bipolar disorder, major depression, social anxiety and borderline intellectual functioning, according to court records. In 2002, Couture was prescribed antidepressants and medication to help minimize the manic episodes. But, according to his family, Couture felt the side effects drastically affected his daily functioning so he would sometimes opt not to take them. He had sought additional treatment at CVPH Medical Center numerous times in the past, the family said, and was twice admitted to the Mental Health Unit. According to a statement he gave Plattsburgh City Police about one day before he allegedly killed Snide, he hadn’t been taking his medication for a long time. ” I haven’t been taking my medication at all,” he told police after being charged with stealing from his aunt in Plattsburgh.
Source Of Information: Plattsburgh Press Republican, 11/4/06, 6/13/07; WSTM TV, 9/6/07
Date: 12/2006
Location: Bronx, Bronx, NY
Summary: Anatoly Dimitriev, a 62-year-old man was shot and killed in a confrontation with police on December 16, 2006. Neighbors said Dimitriev appeared to be mentally ill. They saw Dimitriev throwing bottles out his apartment window and chopping at trees with an ax in the courtyard of the co-op apartment building where he lived with his 41-year-old son in the city’s Bronx borough.
Source Of Information: Associated Press, December 18, 2006
Date: 7/2007
Location: Albany, Albany, NY
Summary: On July 1, 2007, Harrison Carnevale, 17, was killed when Marianne Williams, who had fled police minutes earlier, allegedly ran a stop sign and broadsided the car he was driving on Henry Johnson Boulevard. Police say she nearly ran down two dozen people during a 2005 chase through busy city neighborhoods, Marianne Williams threatened to “put two bullets” in the forehead of a city court judge. Williams, by her own admission, has struggled with mental health problems for years — claiming, according to Kelley’s 2005 report, to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and relying in the past on antipsychotic and mood-altering drugs. In June 2002 she called 911 and told Albany police to “send a car to Myrtle and Grand. I’m gonna kill persons,”
Source Of Information: Albany Times Union, 7/12/07
Date: 3/2008
Location: Queensbury, Warren, NY
Summary: On March 2, 2008, Michael J. Butler, 62, repeatedly rammed a police car with his truck. Butler is a Vietnam War veteran with an extensive history of mental illness. He told Warren County sheriff’s officers he was angry with police about his arrest on February 24 after an alleged attack on members of VFW Post 3754 in Warrensburg, during which he broke the post commander’s nose and threatened patrons with a knife. The former U.S. Marine was found not guilty of the criminal charges in that case by reason of insanity.
Source Of Information: Post Star, 3/4/08
Date: 3/2005
Location: New York, , NY
Summary: On March 28, 2005, a homeless man was arrested for trying to smuggle a BB gun into a federal building in New York City so he could shoot Social Security clerks for cutting off his benefits. O’Brien, who suffers from bipolar disorder and lives in a homeless shelter on Staten Island, was being held without bail by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Source Of Information: New York Daily News, March 29, 2005
Date: 1/2005
Location: Troy, Rensselaer, NY
Summary: Philip Pitcher Jr., a 21-year-old man with bipolar disorder, was charged with felony second-degree murder and felony second-degree arson in the death of his aunt, 43-year-old Lisa Pitcher, in Troy, NY on January 11, 2005. According to police, Lisa Pitcher had been stabbed, strangled and smothered sometime around 5:30 a.m.
Source Of Information: WTEN-TV ABC 10 (NY) January 12, 2005 The Troy Record, January 13, 2005 The Troy Record, January 20, 2005
Date: 6/2008
Location: Brooklyn, Kings, NY
Summary: On June 19, 2008, 49 year-old Esmin Green died about 24 hours after arriving by ambulance at Kings County Hospital Center’s psychiatric emergency room, where doctors said she was schizophrenic and ordered her to be involuntarily committed. According to hospital protocol, Ms. Green should have been given a medical examination before she was admitted. Instead, she was left in the waiting room, where she eventually collapsed on the floor and died of a blood clot the next morning.
Prepared by Mental Illness Policy Org
Culled from Treatment Advocacy Center Preventable Tragedies Database
http://treatmentadvocacycenter.org