Doctor shooter had a history of mental illness

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1228553-p2.html

“We know Scott as a kind and loving son, brother and father who suffered from mental illness at various times in his life. However, none of us ever saw Scott as a person capable of or willing to take another person’s life,” he said.

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According to a court ruling filed in 2005, Roeder was earlier diagnosed with schizophrenia “for which he takes no medication, which may pose a clear and present danger to the female minor child.”

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“… Past conduct and association with anti-government organizations is ongoing and poses a risk to her daughter,” the records said.

The child’s mother and her husband — who has raised the girl as his own since her birth — “feared that (Roeder) would kidnap and hide their daughter since he threatened to do so with his son.”

[hobbit709]

1. Sounds like they're trying to build the insanity defense.

After all, if he was crazy then it wasn't Operation Rescue, O'Reilly or any of those groups' fault that he did this.

[peace frog]

6. Bingo

The poor man couldn't help the first degree murder he carefully planned and executed. Too delusional to be tried as competent, doncha know. :eyes:

[hamsterjill]

28. Exactly!

The dinner with his son to "say goodbye", etc.

The poor guy (Roeder) was really the victim in all of this, right? (Sarcasm, of course)

[fasttense]

2. Roeder would probably have murdered a family member or neighbor

if Bill'O, Fox News, Operation Rescue and The Murderers for Jesus (The Army of God) had not pointed him directly at Dr. Tiller. Roeder was ready to kill someone. Too bad he didn't get some help for his problem. Instead he got hate speech and goading. He was definitely incited by Bill'O, Fox News, Operation Rescue and The Murderers for Jesus.

[blogslut]

3. An unmedicated schizophrenic?

That's not good.

[AllentownJake]

12. People don't develop schizophrenia in middle age

[blogslut]

20. The article doesn't say when he was diagnosed

It just says "earlier".

[anigbrowl]

24. Generally true, but not always

And not all diagnoses of schizophrenia lead to total breakdown. One can't infer a person's mental state from statistics, and to do so without reference to his actual medical history is particularly pointless. I'm sure that when he goes to trial the quality of past psychiatric evaluations will be evaluated.

[Stellabella]

27. Yes, they can.

My mother and sister, to name two.

Although they had problems all their lives, it exploded in middle age. Hearing voices, seeing things, the whole nine yards.

[Posteritatis]

30. They *usually* don't. The brain's a complex critter (nt)

[bluestateguy]

4. Oh here we go with the excuses

For decades conservatives beat the crap out of us (liberals) because they said that we always made excuses for crime, blamed society for the actions of criminals and refused to hold thugs accountable for the crimes they committed.

Bill Clinton taught us not to do that anymore. We learned our lesson.

But now the shoe is on the other foot.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. i.e. - a passionate conservative

[stray cat]

7. Conservatives can't suffer from mental illness -

it creates a conflict for some progressives between demonization of the person and helping the mentally ill :sarcasm:

[AllentownJake]

13. This sounds like BS

If so he needs to be in a medical journal. Schizophrenia isn't something you develop in middle age.

[elfin]

8. So how did he get a gun??? eom

[chat_noir]

9. good question

Roeder is a convicted felon. He couldn't have bought a gun himself.

[peace frog]

10. Like the Oklahoma City bombing

this crime is most likely the result of a conspiracy. "Unindicted co-conspirator" is about to re-enter the current lexicon.

[anigbrowl]

26. One might equally ask when - for all we know, he might have had it for years.

[AllentownJake]

11. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2005?

Not buying it. I'm no shrink but I find it very hard to believe that someone developed schizophrenia in middle age or went undiagnosed for 20-30 years.

What is the average age of onset in males 18-25 the average age in females 25-30.

I smell BS.

[EFerrari]

14. The filing said he was EARLIER diagnosed with the disease.

And that he had it doesn't make the crime less horrible. It doesn't even mean he was in a meltdown although it's possible.

[peace frog]

15. Speaking of conspiracy

Who better to act as frontman pulling the trigger than a diagnosed "mentally ill" wingnut? Always put a nutter out there as the patsy, just ask any RW conspirator.

[Posteritatis]

32. "Average age" != "universal age"

You've dropped the "people above that age can't develop schizophrenia" line three times in this thread, so I don't feel much of a problem saying twice that you're wrong.

[bdamomma]

16. when will people take mental health issues seriously

so this man with a police record for all these years and they never did a psychiatric or psychological assessment on him, and they wait until he kills someone, the system is so effed up.

[Odin2005]

17. Fuck. Here comes the bigoted stereotypes about "violent mentally ill people"

I knew this BS would happen. :puke:

[IdaBriggs]

18. Not even sure what to say to you --

So, let me just say this: obviously, I think he was crazy because only crazy people would behave like he did (and I said this with no prior awareness of any diagnosible mental illness).

HOWEVER, that being said, if he had displayed the strength of character to get some help, none of this would have happened. It seems he 'self-medicated' with religion (and it could just as easily have been alcohol or drugs or television or whatever helped him cope). But really, what it means (to me) is that we should all work together to make sure that "help" is available when any of us need it, its affordable, and there isn't a stigma associated with it.

[spin]

19. There is an effort to include mental health records in the NICS...

the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which is used to determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms or explosives.

Many states already submit records to the data base. However as this article from 2008 shows not all did at that time.

By Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) _ A new federal gun sales law requires states to share mental health information with the FBI and Idaho officials say they are studying ways to comply.

Idaho and 16 other states have not provided any mental health records to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Idaho State Police spokesman Rich Ohnsman says the state is examining the current records system to learn just how mental health records will be released.

He says personal medical records are protected by law and will not be released, but mental health records on people who are involuntarily committed will be compiled in the system by the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
http://www.kidk.com/news/local/14498452.html

As a gun owner I support the NICS and would hope their database is as up to date as possible. I believe adding records for those involuntarily committed for mental issues is only commonsense.

I also would like to see the system expanded to require all private transactions to include a background check.

[spoony]

23. I know, stereotypes suck.

And he must have been sooper DOOPER violent 'cause he was mentally ill AND religious, DU's wet dream!

[Posteritatis]

31. Being able to predict this stuff sucks, doesn't it?

Too many people on DU can already say that "schizophrenic" and "Republican" are synonymous with relatively few people calling BS on them afterwards, and this guy's just going to reinforce that in their little parody-minds.

[Lyric]

21. I have two schizophrenic friends. Neither of them would shoot someone.

At least, not just because they're schizophrenic.

There are degrees of severity and functionality. There are some schizophrenics who only have a mild form of the condition, and who function and appear to be normal. There are others who can't be outside of a mental institution because they are completely lost to reality.

Let's not start making big, fat assumptions about how much of a role his mental illness played in this crime until we know more details--like how functional he was on a day-to-day basis, his reliability about taking his medications, etc. Just because he's schizophrenic doesn't mean that he didn't know what he was doing. Similarly, just because HE killed someone does not mean that ALL schizophrenics are dangerous potential killers.

[MineralMan]

22. The religious right is pouncing on this in an attempt to

separate themselves from Roeder. It's a transparent ploy. I have another post about a story in LifeSite News that expands on this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5771305

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. So damn predictable, we need to build the lone wolf, crazy archetype

since we all know this was not a terrorist act, by a member of a political organization.

Damn... they are so fucking predictable

[moondust]

29. This guy knew exactly what he was doing.