FROM OUR PRINTED SEPT. 2019 EDITION:
Psychiatry’s Failure in the Recent El Paso and Dayton Shootings
Mind-Altering Drugs Again Linked to Hostility/Violence
by Kevin Hall
Citizens Commission on Human Rights,
New England Director
Recently, I wrote an article for the Broadside entitled, “Mental Health Expansion Laws and Policies Following Mass Shootings are Turning People into Walking Time Bombs,” that covered how psychiatry and its drugs, especially the newer antidepressants, have been behind many of the bizarre mass murders that have increased over the past couple of decades since these drugs hit the market. The story also covered some of the psychiatric history of Newtown, Conn. murderer Adam Lanza and how one of his psychiatrists, Paul Fox, was given an 18-month jail sentence in May for having sex with an 18-year-old female patient who claimed Fox was drugging her heavily while pushing sexual acts on this vulnerable teen.
The premise of the article was also that pretty much every time psychiatry and their drugs have been behind creating the mindset of these killers, they lobby for more mental health funding in order to allegedly help prevent the next mass murderer that they have to some degree created.
With the recent murders in El Paso and Dayton, this is “déjà vu all over again,” as former New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra once said. Although it is very difficult to find a person’s confidential mental health history – a great protection for psychiatrists – some data has come out regarding these two shooters and another recent mass murder attempt that was stopped by good police work. Despite the mental health connections to these cases, as usual, there’s also a call for expanded mental health.
On August 4th, 24-year-old Connor Betts opened fire outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people, including his sister, and injuring twenty-seven. According to Ohio TV news station WHIO, after being shot and killed by police, it was found that Betts possessed in his pocket or wallet, “bloodied receipts for April 5, June 10 and another date that couldn’t be read. They were for $50 payments. Two were marked for mental health counseling, the other for mental health services.” The psychiatric anti-anxiety drug Xanax was also in his system along with cocaine and alcohol. This category of psychiatric drug, known as benzodiazepine, can increase violence and hostility, especially when mixed with alcohol.
On August 2nd, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius opened fire at a Walmart in East-Central El Paso, Texas, killing 22 and wounding 24. Although there hasn’t been a release of Crusius’ medical records, his father, Bryan Crusius, is a trained mental health counselor who worked at Timberlawn Mental Health Systems in Dallas, where he conducted psychological evaluations for patients who may be a danger to themselves or others. He obviously didn’t save people from the danger presented by his own son. The father has also admitted to being a drug addict for over
forty years with substances like opiates, hallucinogens, benzodiazepines, antidepressants and ADHD amphetamines.
August 2nd in Lubbock, Texas, murder was averted due to a tip from the grandmother of 19-year-old William Patrick Williams, when investigators searched his hotel room and found a rifle, 17 loaded magazines, a black trench coat, several knives, black tactical pants and black tactical gloves. Antidepressants and a record of his history of depression were also found on Williams who told his grandmother that he was going to shoot up a local hotel and forced local authorities to kill him. Williams was previously convinced by his grandmother to enter a psychiatric facility on July 13th and they released him.
Maybe it’s time we look more closely at psychiatry and our mental health system for being the source of these murders instead of pouring more money into them which, at best, has been fueling the mind-altering psychiatric drugging of 1/6th of the U.S. population. ♦
