Another Shooting Spree

The New York Times reports on 6 deaths in the latest shooting spree, this one in Washington State. The shooter is described as a 28-year-old man with a history of mental illness.

State Department of Corrections officials identified the man as Isaac Zamora, 28, who had served a six-month Skagit County jail sentence for drug possession. Zamora was released Aug. 6 and was under community supervision by Corrections officers, spokesman Chad Lewis said.

Dennise Zamora, mother of the perpetrator, says she desperately tried to get help for her son. I imagine doing six months in county lock-up was the last thing Isaac needed, given his history of mental illness. The result: six dead including an understanding deputy who had tried to help the family.

The slain deputy was identified as Anne Jackson, 40, whom Mrs. Zamora described as a sympathetic figure who had tried to help the family in the past.

''She was very gracious,'' Dennise Zamora said. ''She knew exactly what we were going through, said her brother was going through some similar stuff.''

I say it's time to stop treating drug addicts and mentally ill people like criminals. Unless we want to start executing them at the first offense, we only make matters worse.


What's your opinion?


UPDATE

CNN reports a few more details.