Why Journalists Mention a Perpetrator’s Mental Illness/Shooting in Washington State

Sometimes it’s to explain motive in the face of seemingly inexplicable horror, which I understand. This is most certainly the case with the shooting in Washington State, which left six dead and two wounded yesterday.

HOWEVER, initially, the mention of mental illness was appalling and irresponsible. From CBS News:

A man was arrested after turning himself in at the Skagit County sheriff’s office in Mount Vernon, Trooper Keith Leary said. The man was not immediately identified but Leary said he is known to authorities as “someone with a mental illness.”

Please. That kind of language and lack of context is stigmatizing.

On the other hand, when the suspect was identified and his mother spoke to the press, she described him as “desperately mentally ill,” in one AP report. This is from a different one:

[Isaac] Zamora’s mother said she had tried repeatedly to get help for her mentally ill son.

“We’re so devastated for the families,” Dennise Zamora told The Associated Press by telephone. “I wish it would have been him or me that was killed. That’s how deeply I feel about it.”

The six who died included Skagit County Sheriff’s Deputy Anne Jackson [pictured], 40, who was shot while responding to the initial call by Dennise Zamora.

… Dennise Zamora described Jackson as a sympathetic figure who had tried to help the family in the past.

“She was very gracious,” she said. “She knew exactly what we were going through, said her brother was going through some similar stuff.”

Okay, now we have some more information from an appropriate source.

Is the mental health history relevant, you ask? I say yes. For instance, in Pennsylvania, on death row, there’s an inmate who went on a shooting rampage because he was a white supremacist and was trying to gun down one person from each race (which he did). So that was his motive. In this case, Zamora’s illness seems to partly explain what might have happened here, what motive might have been lacking. I don’t want such facts hidden from me. If that’s what made him go on a rampage–a disconnect from reality–that’s information.

Because this behavior is hard to understand:

Deputy Anne Jackson and a man were found dead at one house at Alger. A woman and two construction workers were found at two other Alger houses. And a driver was found shot to death in a car on I-5. Also a motorcycle rider and State Patrol trooper were wounded.

On a political note (that’s right, I’m going there), once again I have to question the profusion of firearms in this country. Last year, Melissa Santos at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote:

The national group the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave Washington state a D+ rating for gun control legislation.

Natalie Reber, executive director of Washington CeaseFire, said Washington got a subpar grade “because it hasn’t passed sensible gun laws to protect our children and families, such as mandatory background checks on all gun purchases.

“Our elected officials had the opportunity (last) session to pass common-sense gun legislation. Instead they once again allowed the gun lobby to undermine any possibility of passing legislation supported by voters that would help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists and other prohibited purchasers.”

Guess who just got out of jail on Aug. 6? That’s right, Isaac Zamora, former offender, a person prohibited from owning a firearm.

Zamora was under state supervision and considered a high-risk offender, with convictions for theft and drug possession. While Zamora was regarded as a nonviolent offender, he was supervised at a high level because of his long-standing mental-health issues, according to DOC records.

Thanks, gun lobby.

There’s much more on this–including Zamora’s mental illness–here:

6 dead in Skagit County shooting rampage [Seattle P-I]

liz | 11:03 AM | Uncategorized