After being denied treatment for mental illness, man runs down five, kills one
Quote:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/04/....ap/index.html
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- The father of a man accused of going on a deadly hit-and-run rampage said he repeatedly warned mental health officials that his son was a danger to himself and others.
Abdullah El-Amin Shareef, 25, is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree attempted murder stemming from the hit-and-runs, in which five pedestrians were struck. One victim was killed, and another was critically injured.
Authorities said Shareef stole a Fayetteville city-owned van, then a truck, and drove across three counties seeking out pedestrians.
The younger Shareef was held without bond and taken to Dorothea Dix Hospital, the state's mental hospital.
"That's not the son I raised," Abdullah Shareef, 70, said by phone from a friend's home in Raeford late Wednesday. "He was an academically gifted child, a disciplined child. He has definitely always had a great respect for people."
Police and witnesses said the rampage began shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday, with the theft of a city van in Fayetteville. It ended with Shareef's arrest a little over two hours later in Fuquay-Varina, more than 40 miles north.
Lonel Bearl Bass, 56, of Linden, died after he was hit by the van and pinned. Gary Lee Weller, 55, was in critical condition early Thursday at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
Also struck were David McCaskill and Robert Fortier in Cumberland County. McCaskill was hit while walking his two dogs, and said the driver beat him after an unsuccessful attempt to back over him.
"I was holding my hands above my head trying to block him. I asked him, 'What have I done to you?' but he never opened his mouth," said McCaskill, 65.
The attacker drove off when neighbors came out of their houses.
Neither man suffered life-threatening injuries. An unidentified victim was hit in Harnett County, apparently with a truck taken from Bass.
Shareef said his son had in recent years been troubled by psychological problems, family troubles and drug use.
He said the younger Shareef had been living at a Salvation Army shelter in Fayetteville for the past week, after a three-day stint at Dix Hospital in December and two short jail terms.
"He's had some difficulties," Shareef said. "We tried to help him."
Shareef said his son watched him endure a quadruple bypass at Thanksgiving. In December, the younger Shareef separated from his wife, with whom he had three children.
Shortly thereafter, Pauline Shareef -- the suspect's mother -- died of smoke inhalation suffered when the family's home burned down.
In January, Shareef said, his son was arrested in Virginia for trespassing on his mother-in-law's property.
"She knew he was behaving erratically and aggressively and didn't want him near the kids or his wife," Shareef said.
His son spent a few weeks in jail, then returned to Winston-Salem, where he had previously lived. But he was arrested in February and spent 45 days in jail for shoplifting.
Sometime last month, the elder Shareef said, Wendell police called to say they'd found his son in a daze on the side of a road. Because his own home had been destroyed and he was staying with friends, Shareef said he tried to find his son a shelter with counseling.
He said he brought his son to a mental hospital in Raeford, and repeatedly told workers there that his son was a danger to the public.
The elder Shareef said he grieved more for the victims of Wednesday's attacks and their families than he did for his son.
"But I also grieve that we have a system that when you say there's a problem there's no help offered until something tragic happens," he said.
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When someone is recognized to be dangerous to himself and to others, what should be done? I would say that at least a temporary commitment to a psychiatric hospital for an evaluation is called for. If this sort of action had been taken, I don't think the attacks would have taken place.
Our society is beoming too reactionary. We brush everything under the carpet until it piles up and trips us. There is still a stigma associated with mental illness that prevents people from treating it as an illness; instead, they ignore it and avoid those who are ill instead of helping them to get the treatment they need. |
