This browser does not support the Video element.
Mental health issues with crime suspects
Mental health issues with crime suspects
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Mental health issues may be to blame for a young man's arrest in Madison. Police say a 20-year-old psychiatric patient was able to get his hands on a gun -- and was planning to shoot people.
Madison police say they got a tip that the 20-year-old bought an AK-47 online intending to kill a 21-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman. The intended targets did not know each other.
The suspect's mother said her son recently admitted himself to a psychiatric unit and is extremely disturbed.
Earlier in the week, 20-year-old Kvon Smith of Milwaukee allegedly went to the state capitol with Molotov cocktails in his backpack. He intended to ignite them. His family says Smith is schizophrenic and bi-polar. They say he stopped taking his medication in November. They realize many others need help as well.
From the mass shooters in the Newtown, CT school to the Aurora, CO movie theater, mental health issues are a common theme.
Dr. Bradley Smith of Rogers Memorial Hospital says the first onset of schizophrenia for many men occurs int he late teens to early 20s.
"Schizophrenia is a long-term illness people will have to manage and we see the best outcomes for people is when they have supportive family and friends as well as the support of resources in the mental health community," said Dr. Smith.
Dr. Smith says he knows that given constant treatment, in many cases the outcomes could have been much different.