<p>I am amazed at how many people are blaming the parents. As a parent of a mentally ill adult, you cannot force them to take their medication, or force them to go to therapy, or force them into hospitalization unless they are deemed by a mental health professional to be a danger to themselves or others (and then the in patient care will be minimal). Obviously, this young man hid many things from his parents and therapists. I’m not trying to diagnose, but sociopaths are very skilled at manipulation and hiding the truth about their true feelings/thoughts.</p>
<p>About the parents giving him money to live on, sometimes the only other choice is to let you child become homeless. And if there is anything more heart-breaking than having a mentally ill child, it is having one out on the streets. </p>
<p>My heart goes out to the families of those killed, but I truly don’t think the parents, or therapists, or anyone else but this young man are to blame. Perhaps maybe the mental health system? </p>
<p>@DEfour Well, there was at least one movie we KNOW impacted him, because he kept referring to it. I think it was called ‘Alpha Male’, it was about a teen ager kidnapped because his father owed money to some drug guys, or some drug scenario, and he was taken to parties in IV and then killed. In the movie apparently there are party scenes where he is seduced by a blonde or more than one, and ER said he was glad when the kid was killed at the end after having been taken to the parties because he was jealous of him. He said he thought of that movie when his parents wanted him to go to SB and he was delighted. I am guessing his periods of anticipation for some new magic cure were as good periods in his life as he ever had.</p>
<p>As for the 911 call I’m not sure it existed. I just saw it reported. Other reports mention ‘calling the police’ and might have been mixing up the call previously, where the police called and nothing happened. After already calling the police once, perhaps they were of a mind that that didn’t work, or the idea that they had a day, as someone mentioned, might have been a reason not to call. I would have thought we would have heard of a 911 call more, myself, but then, if the machetes are real, it took a while for that to come out.</p>
<p>TatinG, it’s very clear from the news reports. The therapist called the mother when the therapist saw the manifesto, she immediately called the father who was at dinner, they jumped into separate cars to race there, but it was too late. </p>
<p>You know, it’s funny how there are two different narratives. One was that he was a spoiled, entitled rich boy whose parents did everything for him, got him a fancy car, tons of money, enabled him, blah blah blah. The other is that the parents washed their hands of him and wanted him shipped out and out of their hair. </p>
<p>You know, when you have a troubled young adult like this it is NOT always clear what direction to go in. Is frequent visiting evidence of caring – or babying and enabling? Is providing money evidence of caring (you don’t want your loved one on the street) or is it enabling? Is having your kid live in an apartment in a college community with young people a positive attempt to help him develop an independent adult life, or is it “washing one’s hands” and shipping the problem away? Which is right – love and compassion, or tough love?</p>
<p>I’ve been around the block long enough to know that it’s easy to judge from the outside, and a lot harder from the inside. Until I see evidence that the parents were negligent, I’m not going to parent-blame. </p>
<p>" Imagine though that your 22 yr old son gets drunk and gets in a pushing match with other drunks on a ledge that is 10 ft off the ground. He’s the one who ends up with a broken ankle. He then gets dragged into a driveway and beaten up. Admittedly this is his side of the story but no one seems to dispute that he broke his ankle and was beaten up. Do you automatically take from this that your son is a danger to others or do you see him as a danger to himself?"</p>
<p>“About the parents giving him money to live on, sometimes the only other choice is to let you child become homeless. And if there is anything more heart-breaking than having a mentally ill child, it is having one out on the streets.”</p>
<p>The same people who are going “oh, the parents handed him so much money, the fancy BMW, the apartment in a nice community, kid didn’t even have to work, blah blah blah” … What if it had been the other way and the parents had refused to give him basic shelter and he’d been homeless? Then the same people would all be b*itching that here was this rich movie director and he was too much of a tightwad to ensure his own troubled child had a basic roof over his head. Can’t win for losing. I’m sickened by those who second-guess the parents all day long. There but for the grace of God go all of you. </p>
Parents can’t take responsibility when privacy laws cut them out. Not so much in the case of ER, but this is what happened with Cho at VT. I read a detailed report about Cho. His parents went to see him every weekend. And if VT hadn’t misinterpreted FERPA, his parents could have been informed and they possibly would have withdrawn him from school.</p>
<p>“A family friend also said the person in the video was not anything like the ER that they all knew. They were shocked.”</p>
<p>But that won’t stop the ignorant from saying that the parents should have had a crystal ball. Shame on people who don’t realize the thin lines here.</p>
Well, his supposed former best friend knew about the ER shown in the video, because he had discussed plans like in the video. When ER got weirder and weirder, the former best friend cut off contact.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the mental health system is, exactly. There’s no system other than involuntary commitment and there was no reason for that until there was and by then he was dead. We know he saw at least one psychiatrist and there’s mention of counselors and a therapist. and some kind of treatment for something mysteriously undiagnosed since he was 8 years old. And an unused prescription for Risperidone. Mistakes were made. Probably tons of mistakes. But, it will take some pretty startling new information before I think anyone is to blame but the crazed killer himself.</p>
<p>Sadly, there was just no way to predict this tragedy. </p>
<p>How, precisely, do you force a 22 yo to take medication? Be involuntarily committed when not meeting the criteria? This is all really easy to second guess for people who haven’t been in these situations. </p>
<p>I’d be interested to see how the murderer could have been prescribed that medication and yet, not be entered into the database considering the types of disorders it’s supposed to treat would have necessitated the MH professional to enter his name into the statewide database and legally precluded him from owning firearms. </p>
<p>There’s likely to be serious questions asked of the MH professional(s) who were involved in prescribing that medication and yet, failed to flag him in that statewide database. </p>
<p>In fact, someone with confirmed diagnosis of such disorders who even attempted to purchase firearms and ammunition would itself constitute a crime under California’s firearms laws. </p>
<p>The perpetrator had the profile and the hallmarks of previous killers. So not totally unpredictable or surprising, to the extent that this type of tragedy can be not surprising. I continue to hold out hope that there is a way to prevent these types of killings, but it is going to take more work from those who know these types of people, either as family members, professionals or acquaintances.</p>
<p>Risperidone is sometimes used to treat autism. It doesn’t look to me like an autism diagnosis would, by itself, require an entry in the NICS database. The database is more for people who have been involuntarily committed, or who are so developmentally disabled they have a guardian, or who have been ordered to have outpatient mental health treatment, or who have been adjudged mentally incompetent to stand trial or criminally insane. </p>
<p>So, Cobrat…you’re saying that having been prescribed certain medicines would automatically put his name on a prohibited “do not sell” list? I’m not sure that squares with the California law that I read. Im remembering that it required a court to declare you incompetent, or a MH professional to certify that you made threats against a specific person(s). Is there a database of who is on certain medications, and to whom is it available? </p>
<p>There’s no way to prevent people from being crazy, but there sure are ways to get guns off the street. Fascinating how Western Europe and Australia manage to do it, and manage not to have these kinds of shootings.</p>
<p>American exceptionalism on guns is nothing to be proud of, that’s for sure. If we want to talk harmful cultural narratives, the cultural narrative that says that a gun is a manly, cool thing to have is one I’d be happy to put away forever. I think of gun ownership as about the least manly thing someone could ever do. It makes me think of redneck culture. Sorry.</p>
<p>Risperidone is an anti-psychotic which is used to treat schizophrenia and personality disorders as well. </p>
<p>Seems like it’s prescribed for those on the spectrum whose behaviors are severe enough to warrant it to manage them, especially considering its severe side effects. </p>
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<p>I recalled that diagnosed serious personality disorders and mental illnesses like schizophrenia would cause one to be legally barred from possessing or even attempting to buy firearms under California’s firearms laws. </p>
<p>There were news reports of California law enforcement rounding up firearms from licensed owners who were subsequently institutionalized or found to have been diagnosed with such disorders/mental illnesses. </p>
<p>Risperidone is mainly used to treat schizophrenia and certain problems caused by bipolar disorder.</p>
<p>Im concerned that after he attempted to push people off the ledge and fimed the videos that someone saw & reported, that the police were not able to do more when they questioned him, even though they felt like he was lying about the incidents.</p>