I think it was a mentally ill man who should have been institutionalized years ago. Unfortunately, our nation has chosen to close mental health facilities and spend the money for other things. This action is coming back to bite us in the arse.
Absolutely. I personally have arrested many people for crimes but they can not legally be put in a jail because it is illegal to hold someone that is mentally ill in a jail cell. We would take them to the county jail and they would be back out and in town before we were. It's the great dilemma. They commit crimes and are arrested but, by law, can't be held in jail if they have been adjudicated as mentally ill. The capper is that the state shut down any facility that LE had to place these people. It is a great revolving door where LE has to wait until they kill someone before it gets attention, and then their lawyer, rightfully so, will point out that they should have been given mental health treatment long ago.
