Why America's Mass Shootings Can't Be Labeled A Mental Health Issue

Arizona Shooting Spree - 1 Dead, Several Wounded, 1 Arrested

Ryan Giroux

Local news 

An ex-convict with a history of violence and drug use is accused of gunning down a man in a Mesa motel Wednesday morning, then going on a shooting spree that left five others, including a culinary student, injured.

A Mesa SWAT team took Ryan Giroux, 41, into custody around 1 p.m., in a vacant condominium near Longmore and Emelita Avenue after a massive manhunt that included four other law-enforcement agencies.

Giroux was shot with a Taser, taken to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa for treatment, then questioned late into Wednesday evening by detectives and investigators. Hewas expected to be booked into Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail on multiple charges.

In Chicago At Least 40 People Shot Over the Weekend - 4 Deaths

Huffington Post

An 11-year-girl was shot and killed during a slumber party as violence struck Chicago over the weekend, local media outlets reported on Sunday.

At least 40 people were shot, and four killed, in weekend violence in the third-largest U.S. city, the NBC affiliate in Chicago reported.

The deaths included an 11-year-old girl, shot in the head inside a first-floor bedroom on Friday night after someone fired a gun from outside the house, said Chicago Police Officer Jose Estrada.

Shamiya Adams, who died the next day, had been sitting on the floor during a sleep-over at her best friend's home, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Chicago Police Department on Sunday had not released an official tally of the weekend violence. But reports of another outbreak of gunfire came as the city has been grappling with a wave of summer violence.

Oregon School Shooting - 2 Dead, 1 Wounded

Jared Michael Padgett

WSJ

The gunman who fatally shot a student and then killed himself at an Oregon high school Tuesday was a 15-year-old freshman at the school, police said.

Jared Michael Padgett used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the attack that killed a fellow Reynolds High School freshman and wounded a teacher, Scott Anderson, chief of police in Troutdale, Ore., said Wednesday.

The suspect also was armed with a semi-automatic handgun that he didn't use in the assault, and investigators recovered nine loaded magazines and a large knife, Mr. Anderson said.

Mr. Padgett got the weapons from his family home. Although they were secured, "he defeated the security measures," the police chief said.

"Given the weapons and amount of ammunition that the shooter was carrying, the early notification and the initial law enforcement response were critical," Mr. Anderson said.

The teen shooter arrived at a building that houses the school's gym carrying a guitar case and a duffle bag, Mr. Anderson said. Wearing a camouflage helmet and a vest containing ammunition, Mr. Padgett opened fire at about 8 a.m. in the boys' locker room, allegedly gunning down 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman. No link between the boys has been established, the police chief said.

Teacher Todd Rispler was grazed by a bullet and "despite being injured," made his way from the locker room to initiate a school lockdown, he said.

Mr. Padgett moved into the hallway, where he encountered responding officers, then ducked into a restroom. After an exchange of gunfire, Mr. Padgett was found dead, killed by a "self-inflicted" gunshot, said Mr. Anderson. He wouldn't discuss motives.

"I cannot emphasize enough the role that Mr. Rispler and the responding officers played in saving many, many lives yesterday," the police chief said.

More Background on Aaron Ybarra

Huffington Post

The man charged with killing one student and wounding two others at a small Seattle college last week had stopped taking his medications because he "wanted to feel the hate," and he detailed his plans in a handwritten journal for two weeks before the attack, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

"I just want people to die, and I'm gonna die with them!" Aaron Ybarra wrote the day of the shooting, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said.

Satterberg released new details of the allegations as he filed charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault against Ybarra, 26. Satterberg is seeking a sentence of life in prison.

Authorities say Ybarra has been held without bail and is on suicide watch at the county jail since a student pepper-sprayed him and ended the rampage Thursday at Seattle Pacific University.

Ybarra's lawyer, Ramona Brandes, has said her client has a long history of mental issues but is aware of the trauma caused by the shooting and is sorry. She said Tuesday that no decision has been made yet on whether he will seek a mental-illness defense.

"We have to look at his symptoms he manifested in the past, his treatment and his jail records to determine whether his mental illness arises to the level of a defense. These are choices he's going to be involved in," Brandes told The Seattle Times. "He wasn't on his meds and he committed an action that is incomprehensible. Had he been on his meds, would this have happened? We'll continue asking that for all time."

More Background on Jerad Miller

Huffington Post

Jerad Miller was ready to share his anti-government views with just about anyone who would listen, views that telegraphed his desire to kill police officers and his willingness to die for what he hoped would be a revolution against the government.

He told neighbors, television reporters and the Internet. Once, on the phone with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, he threatened to "start shooting people."

If local or federal authorities were monitoring his online rants and increasingly sharp threats, they aren't saying — not with police still investigating what triggered Miller and his wife to gun down two officers and a third man Sunday before taking their own lives.

Even if Miller had attracted the attention of law enforcement, authorities would initially have been confined to knocking on his door and starting a conversation to try to gauge whether he was a true threat. His opinions were free speech, protected by the First Amendment. And given limited resources and rules against creating government watch lists, it would be impossible to keep tabs on everyone who actively promotes beliefs that may — or may not — turn to violence.

"In this particular situation, I think we would all be kidding ourselves if we said the signs weren't there," Finch said.

In January, Miller called a recorded help line of Indiana's motor vehicles bureau after he was pulled over in Nevada and found to have a suspended license from the state he had recently left. At the end of the call, Miller said, "If they come to arrest me for noncompliance or whatever, I'm just going to start shooting people," according to agency spokeswoman Danielle Dean.

The bureau contacted Nevada's Department of Public Safety and provided a copy of the recording, which the department's investigation division forwarded to a state-run threat analysis center on Jan. 22, spokeswoman Gail Powell said. The threat center forwarded the information to the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center, a combined project of federal, state and local authorities.

What happened next is unclear; the counterterrorism center did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Is saying "I'm just going to start shooting people," really protected by the 1st Amendment? Isn't it a crime to say such a thing?  

Why don't we arrest all those who say such things? If found to be a real danger, these people need to be disarmed.

The Story of Ivette and Eddie