Violent End to a Violent Life: Our Neighborhood Nightmare

The only failure in dealing with extremely violent and reoffending individuals that our society has made is the failure to lock them up and refuse to ever let them out. People who have a long history of violence and sex crimes, whether they do it because of mental illness or not, should never be turned loose back on the public. Keep them in prison or a hospital or both, but allowing them to walk around free and continue to endager perfectly innocent people is irresponsible.

He was incarcerated for 11 of the past 15 years? Obviously, he didn't receive the mental health services he needed, so one has to ask--why would this person be returned to society.

Probably the most basic psych evaluation would have revealed his propensity for violence.

It's horrible that your community was in a way, held hostage by the fear this person instilled in people, who cringed when he walked through the door.

It seems to me that your neighborhood did nothing but try to help this individual and you have nothing that you or anyone there did that you should feel guilty about.

If he had gone proper psychological administration before being pronounced as normal then both his life as well as the physical damage to others would have been prevented.

That sentence makes absolutely zero sense. What exactly is psychological administration? And the second half of the sentence implies that his life should have somehow been prevented. Wow.

Psychological administration is carried out when an indicted person is released from police custody; whether he is prone to repeat the offense or not. If yes then he is 'watched' or if he is too dangerous then he is put in detention.

Definitely his life should have been prevented. What do you want ... every criminal to be shot dead? every psychologically challenged patient to be given the electric chair. Each human life is important ... and maximum efforts should be carried out to prevent its wastage.

Every Life is not important and I am sure you might have a different view on that if you or one of your family happened to be the victim of an extremely violent and traumatic event because someone was released when they should have been executed. This man may not have needed to have been given such a harsh punishment, but he did not need to be released at all. At some point when someone has comitted such horrible acts there comes a time when they should not be allowed to live any longer. Hypothetical situation: A man who has been in and out of prison for violent crimes his entire life, costing the taxpayers millions by the way, finally commits murder and is sent back to prison, this time for life. I think we can all agree this person is a danger to society and should never be released. Ten years later he escapes and kills your daughter or son or husband, etc. That life could have been saved easily with the death penalty. This actually happened in Texas. The only difference is that there were six men who escaped and they killed more than one person before the were finally caught. The death penalty is in place for a good reason. It has nothing to do with deterring crime. It has to do with protecting society.

By the way, I am pretty sure the term you are looking for is Psychological Evaluation.

I very strongly doubt he was ever pronounced as "normal". The man is a sociopath, and sociopaths are unrepentant and incurable.

The mentally ill rarely receive the treatment then need, because, in general, they don't feel they need it. Are you suggesting to forcibly round up the homeless and "process" them? This is a case of the criminal justice department failing miserably. He never should have been let out, and when he was, his violent outburst in January should have sent him right back in.

Sounds like the policeman wasn't prepared for him either.

Please pray for the soul of a man who spent his life in emotional torture. Please pray for those who survive him, that they receive the help they need as they cope with their loss. Please pray for the people who turned their backs on Mr. Mallory, that theyturn again and resolve to care. Please pray for the people who believe the solution to mental disability is death rather than love. Please pray for this nation, and every person in it.

Please pray for the man who died, those who survived his attacks, and those who ignored his needs. Please pray for those whose solution to mental illness is institutionalization and death. Please pray for a nation that does not care.

First, I want to thank everyone who commented. Every contribution has been helpful to me. To minimize comment email on this post, I'll combine individual messages here.

lwhaley1979: Like you, I think the system did not function effectively. If we had a better system, there would be less suffering all around. I still am bitter toward the Reagan administration for turning homeless persons out onto the streets by emptying institutions. But my sister-in-law who advocates for persons with disabilities reminds me that institutions weren't a great answer either. We need a better model.

I don't agree that your premise "Every Life is not important" is the answer. It would not serve you so well if whoever is in power decides that YOUR life is not important. I will leave a discussion of the death penalty to another post.

I join you in the search for a more responsible way to deal with violent behavior in our society. Thanks for commenting here.

Delilah: Thanks for your reassuring message. Every sentence of your comment is right on-target. Those who serve the people who live in poverty in our neighborhood are horror-struck by this incident but undeterred in their commitment to continue the work.

Allknower: I think you and I are on the same wave-length on this issue. I'd like to stress to other readers that this incident demonstrates that how we handle mental health treatment affects us all, not merely those who live in poverty or without homes.

Today's news states: "Antidepressant use in the US doubled from 1996 to 2005..." However, it seems that the US can't yet provide adequate physical health care to the nation, much less mental health care.

firesisle: I'd also speculate that an antisocial personality disorder diagnosis factors in here. Your comment brings to my mind a difficult related issue: what to do about people who need prescribed psychotropic medication but refuse to take it? I don't have an answer to that. I agree that moving freely among society is not an appropriate due to the public safety issues. Thanks for your thought-provoking comments.

lyrogersle: I join you in prayer: for Steven, for his friends and family, for the victims of his attacks--both Friday and throughout his life, and most of all--for all of us, that we grow in wisdom to deal effectively and compassionately with these complex problems. Bless you! Peace!

What ever happened shouldn't have taken place, Billie. Thanks for bringing this incident to ALLVOICES.How could someone be so ruthless to a mentally unstable man and take his life?This has really saddened me and everyone who has read this ,I'm sure.May the Almighty give patience and soothe the wounds of the affected family,Ameen.

It is a tragic death, Fauzia. We were crying about it at work today, when I shared the story with a co-worker who just returned from being out of town and was learning all this for the first time. Even though Steven is thought to have been unarmed, the policeman was seriously injured. I believe the officer will be found to have acted in self-defense. I suspect that he was in danger of being killed by Steven's attack. But we will see what the report says. I love your beautiful closing prayer. Thank you!

I think at some point over the last week in some article a specifically bitter & non empathetic person mentioned that perhaps they should think about how they might feel if they were in someone else's shoes & I think this is a good place to contemplate that. Thanks to Teknowizard for telling us a bit about his story. I had just been in conversations earlier today about how frustrating the whole bi-polar thing must be. From every bi-polar source I've ever known, the one thing I keep hearing is that no one has really figured any kind of realistic cure for the issues. Essentially Doctors keep trying new & different types of medication & while some may work for a while, none work all the time & many of them cause serious problems in other areas. I have only gotten to know bi-polar people over the last 6 years or so, but during that time I have met many who have all shared their frustration with me on some level & try as I might I cannot imagine trying to live in their world. And before you ask if I have been close to someone that was a victim of violent crime, the answer is yes. I can still be empathetic, honestly I don't believe our world will get much of anywhere if we lose our abilities to discern between a threat & a cry for help. I read the article & while it mentioned some things about the man in question, it did not give us evidence that he did anything much beyond freak out the day he got shot. It is sad when people jump to conclusions based on their own experience rather than trying to take an empathetic view to the story . I know that over the last 7 months as I kept searching for work, I kept feeling that I might snap any time, so I stay away from people until I think I'm reasonable again. The difference is that I have a home, I did finally get a job (just finished my 2nd day) & I haven't hit rock bottom, my own view point on the matter is, "there but with grace of God go I" . I wish him peace & the people hurt in this matter a speedy recovery & hope that those of you who have said harsh things in this matter will never have to go through what he obviously did.
I hope that some day some one finds some more effective ways to deal with mental issues than many have found thus far. One friend wonders if the pesticides & growth hormones & many other "foreign substances" that are involved with the foods we eat hasn't contributed to these mental issues, there could possibly be less reasonable hypotheses & if any Doctors have figured it out, they sure need to quickly share their cures with the world, because it does seem to be becoming much more prevalent than it has been thus far. I will admit, I do believe that EVERY life is important & I understand that being faced with people that don't feel that way can be quite overwhelming to the people who are belittled & ignored. Most people that turn out to be "bad" usually had some major impetus to make them that way & while I accept no excuses for bad behavior, I can see how certain circumstances could make one feel the world was against them. Wasn't that what the movie "Rambo" was about? Actual question, I never watched it, but saw snippets of it & it always seemed like the classic guy that could never catch a break & finally lost his cool when the big mean men picked on him. Honestly if the story was written from different angle many of you would have paid for the movie ticket. Thanks for an empathetic view of this story Billie & for your patience & understanding. I hope you have a wonderful day, yer pal Mel Bell.

Thanks for YOUR comment, Mel Bell, which was well worth reading simply for its empathy alone. I encourage you (and everyone on Allvoices) to visit Tecknowizard's profile and see his two first posts here. He has amazing talent!

By the way, Mel, your recent post encouraging us to write about things close to home inspired me to post about this event. And, on another topic, I saw Carolyn Wonderland's video on the Allvoices front page today as Most Viewed Video. Nice.

Thanks for adding that video. I appreciate your help & your stories. I spoke to a young man from Guadalajara yesterday who was explaining that he is unable to order items on line because there is "war" in Mexico, he's very frustrated because all he wants is to have a way to acquire graphic novels & war in Mexico is the excuse that companies use for not trying to mail items to Mexico. I would have been very confused had I not read your material last week explaining the rising death tolls in Juarez. I think we can learn a lot from one another & you are most certainly teaching me - thanks again, yer pal Mel Bell.