CA - Rancho Tehama - Gunman targets school, random others, kills 5, 14 Nov 2017

[Lilibet]

This case gives me chills and brings back awful memories. Apologies for the long story, but I think it illustrates the overwhelming challenges in preventing these tragedies.

Over 30 years ago we lived on ten acres out in the boonies and there was a neighbor named “Fuzzy” terrorizing everyone on our road. We lived 30 minutes from the sheriff's substation. If LE didn’t get there in time to catch him in the act, there was nothing they could do except talk to him. That just made him worse. He made angry threats against all the neighbors. Shot at houses and mailboxes.

After months of this, one night he called us and threatened violence. He didn’t hang up his phone, so we couldn’t call 911. With our young daughter, we had to sneak to a neighbor’s house to call...and then wait for the sheriff to show up while we listened to him outside his trailer screaming threats to kill us and the other neighbors. He was arrested and spent a few days in jail. Yes, only a few days, and we weren’t notified of his release.

When he got home, he drove his pickup truck to our house, rifle in the gun rack. There was no time for me to call LE and we were not gun owners. I was alone and scared but I decided the best option was to come out on the front porch to face him peacefully, rather than hide and not know what he was up to. He said in a threatening voice, “I came to tell you Fuzzy’s back.” I said, “Thank you for letting us know. We only want peace, Fuzzy.” After a tense moment he nodded and left and for some reason we never had any more trouble from him.

But if this had continued to escalate, we could easily have been victims, as could any of our neighbors. The guy was a ticking time bomb and clearly mentally ill and self-medicating with drugs, but there was only so much LE and the courts could do. Needless to say, we soon sold our beautiful property in the redwoods and moved away, for this and other reasons.

My heart aches for the victims and terrified neighbors in Rancho Tehama. I’d like to think this could have been prevented, but there are too many holes in the system to plug IMO.

 

[Lilibet]

Since we have heard that the killer was mentally ill and his family tried to get him help, this seems as good a place as any to post this recent series of articles from my local paper that address this subject. In Oregon, as in other states, it is exceptionally difficult for anyone to be involuntarily committed for treatment. These articles, “Waiting Tragedy,” are heart-wrenching and informative, the product of a joint effort by a newspaper reporter and a television reporter, published in the Medford “Mail Tribune.”

http://gatehouseprojects.com/waitingtragedy/home/site/mailtribune.com

The murder victim in the first article was also mentally ill. Had his family been able to get him help, he probably would not have been murdered.

http://www.mailtribune.com/news/20171115/murder-victim-also-struggled-with-mental-illness

 

[zencompass]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/california-shooting-custodian-trnd/index.html

From this article (above): Mentions several heroic actions:

"As awful as it was, this week's shooting at a Northern California elementary school could have been a lot worse, if not for the actions of a custodian."

"It is monumental that that school went on lockdown," Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said. "I truly believe that we would have had a horrific bloodbath in that school if that school had not taken that action when they did."

 

[Doghairrules]

Boy orphaned by California shooting knew and feared gunmanhttp://www.cnn.com/2017/11/17/us/boy-orphaned-california-shooting/index.html

 

[Pamela_Brewer]

http://dailym.ai/2hJZQj7

The bleeding and dying mother asked four people who refused to help her until she finally found a deputy sheriff.

MOO

 

[CARIIS]

After latest shooting, let's talk about mental health instead of you-know-what

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-met-northern-california-shooting-huppke-20171115-story.html

Have they revealed any more about the context of the conflict with the MIL?

I remain curious if there was a religious component to it??

Or parania like she was after him or something along those lines?

 

[JaneEyre]

After latest shooting, let's talk about mental health instead of you-know-what

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-met-northern-california-shooting-huppke-20171115-story.html

Have they revealed any more about the context of the conflict with the MIL?

I remain curious if there was a religious component to it??

Or parania like she was after him or something along those lines?

Did you mean to post those comments in this thread, or in the Texas church shooting thread? The MIL issue was for that shooting.

These are all starting to blend together, with angry white man after angry white man going on rampage after rampage, killing innocent children.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[bluesneakers]

Did you mean to post those comments in this thread, or in the Texas church shooting thread? The MIL issue was for that shooting.

These are all starting to blend together, with angry white man after angry white man going on rampage after rampage, killing innocent children.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

The comments seem to be about Texas, but the link is to an article about the shooting in California:

Phil Johnston, assistant sheriff of Tehama County, told reporters: “This is an individual that armed himself with the motive of getting even with his neighbor and just went on a rampage. I don’t know how to describe it to you any different.”

Maybe that’s because these tragedies all start to sound the same: some random guy; an inexplicable outburst of violence; lives shattered.

Remember, I’m keeping quiet about the firearms. One has to be respectful.

Instead, I’m going to talk about mental health.

And like you said:

Maybe that’s because these tragedies all start to sound the same: some random guy; an inexplicable outburst of violence; lives shattered.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...alifornia-shooting-huppke-20171115-story.html

 

[human]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/california-shooting-custodian-trnd/index.html

From this article (above): Mentions several heroic actions:

"As awful as it was, this week's shooting at a Northern California elementary school could have been a lot worse, if not for the actions of a custodian."

"It is monumental that that school went on lockdown," Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said. "I truly believe that we would have had a horrific bloodbath in that school if that school had not taken that action when they did."

I think there is a protocol for school lockdowns although I guess the protocol is now called active shooter.

I am a retired teacher. After Columbine, I believe there was a law passed that schools had to have lockdown drills. We had six a year after Columbine.

We had our protocol and one of the steps is that the building engineer locks all doors. This training has helped in several school shootings.

New schools are probabably built to the National Standards for school shooters or whatever the name is now.

Lovely world.

 

[human]

After latest shooting, let's talk about mental health instead of you-know-what

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-met-northern-california-shooting-huppke-20171115-story.html

Have they revealed any more about the context of the conflict with the MIL?

I remain curious if there was a religious component to it??

Or parania like she was after him or something along those lines?

We should find out what other countries are doing as they apparently do not have angry white men who are mentally ill

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Connecting mental illness and mass shooting misses the point, experts say
by Phil McCausland

Neal’s family knew he was mentally ill, but they never thought he would kill five people and attack an elementary school in rural northern California. But Neal committed both those acts on Tuesday, and it has left his family asking some very difficult questions.

"We got, 'I can't take it anymore’ a thousand times — like when do you know if it's real?" asked Sheridan Orr, Neal’s sister.

Orr said her brother had made such statements for nearly 20 years, and the family came to consider it to be an empty threat. Though they continued to pressure him to receive help for his mental health, he seemed unwilling to pursue treatment...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...gun-violence-misses-point-experts-say-n821696

 

[CARIIS]

"Mom said his delusions and anti-government rhetoric was getting worse and worse," Orr said.

[video=cnn;us/2017/11/14/shooting-near-california-elementary-school-llr-orig.cnn]http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/us/california-shooter-threats-neighbors/index.html[/video]

 

[Doghairrules]

Just thinking about how hard the holidays will be for these families, the families in Texas and those affected by the last Vegas shootings.

 

[x_files]

We should find out what other countries are doing as they apparently do not have angry white men who are mentally ill

They must but they don't have as easy access to guns? Maybe it's easier to involuntarily commit someone.
If he threatened suicide to his mother couldn't see legally call for help? Baker Act?

 

[HMSHood]

Looking at the killer, I would not be surprised if he is an injustice collector.