ANTIDEPRESSANTS? Mental Health Worker Arrested in Serial Stabbings

NOTE FROM DR. ANN BLAKE TRACY (www.drugawareness.org):
Keep in mind that the LARGE majority of mental healthworkers take antidepressants. One psych nurse in the mid-west estimated 75% of the workers in her facility were on them.
And am I surprised about the news on this case?!!!! NOPE!!!! I was wondering about this one myself because it brought to mind a woman I worked with years ago who reported that even after coming off her meds (still in withdrawal) could not have a knife, even a butter knife or a pair of scissors, lying around where she would see them because the thought/compulsion to pick it up and stab one of her children was too great.
This young man’s background also reminds me of an awful case I had in Israel several years ago where another shy kid from Israel was given Paxil for “Social Anxiety.” A concerned family member here in the states sent a copy of my book to the family. His parents read my book and were very concerned about the information, but they thought he seemed to be improving (when  mania begins it SEEMS you are getting better because you become more assertive and outgoing), so they decided they would just watch him closely to keep him from having any serious reactions. But he got upin the middle of the night, went out and blew up an army jeep, and then began ranting about wanting to be a suicide bomber.
Police in Arlington, Va., stopped him for a traffic offense

Aug. 5 and arrested him on a 2008 misdemeanor assault charge from Leesburg, Va., where he had lived and worked in the mentalhealth field. A hammer and a knife were found inside the Chevrolet Blazer, which was returned to him after his brief detention. There was no national alert for Abuelazam or his vehicle.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100813/ap_on_re_us/us_serial_stabbings

Police: Israeli man also suspect in Israel attack

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer Diaa Hadid, Associated Press Writer – 45 mins ago

RAMLE, Israel – Israeli police said Friday the suspect instabbings in three states also was a suspect in a separate stabbing attack in Israel earlier this year, but charges were never pressed.

A senior police commander said Elias Abuelazam was believed to have stabbed a close acquaintance during an argument in a parked car in central Israel about six months ago. The commander said police dropped the case because the victim refused to cooperate with investigators.

The commander spoke on condition of anonymity because he was barred from speaking to the media under official policy.

Abuelazam is suspected of attacking people in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia, leaving five people dead and 13 wounded. He was arrested Wednesday in Atlanta as he prepared to board a flight to his native Israel.

The 33-year-old man appeared in an Atlanta courtroom on Friday, agreeing during a brief hearing to return to Michigan to face charges in one of the attacks  an attempted murder in a July 27 knife strike in Flint, Mich., that put the victim in a hospital for a week. Authorities said more charges were expected in the three states.

Abuelazam, who was expressionless as he responded to questions from Judge Richard Hicks, first told Hicks he wanted to stay in Georgia and face the charges. But Hicks told him he would have to return to Michigan if he wanted to fight them.

After Hicks explained the process further, Abuelazam agreed to waive an extradition fight, a process that could take months, and go back to Michigan.

“All right, then I’ll do so,” he said. “It sounds more logical to go right now than in 90 days.”

But moments after the hearing ended, Abuelazam’s attorney called Fulton County Superior Court to request another hearing. Hicks appeared in the courtroom later Friday and said Abuelazam had waived extradition.

In Ramle, a hardscrabble Israeli town southeast of Tel Aviv with a mixed Jewish-Arab population, residents in the Arab neighborhood where Abuelazam grew up expressed shock that the shy son of a respected family could be a suspect insuch a gruesome crime spree.

“I wouldn’t believe it even if I saw it with my own eyes,” said Abuelazam’s cousin, also named Elias Abuelazam. He said the news had devastated the suspect’s mother. “I was there last night. She couldn’t stand up. She took medicine to reduce her blood pressure. She was hysterical.”

But the senior Israeli police official said Abuelazam was believed to be the attacker in the car stabbing months ago. The official said he and the close acquaintance got into an argument and Abuelazam pulled out a screwdriver and stabbed the other man in the face.

The official said Ramle police investigated, but because the victim refused to press charges, authorities could not arrest Abuelazam.

Ramle’s 3,000-member Arab Christian community is extremely tight knit, and residents were extremely cautious about discussing Abuelazam’s past.

The Flint stabbings started in May, shortly after Abuelazam is believed to have returned to the U.S. from Israel, with the attacker approaching men on lonely roads at night and asking for directions or help with a broken-down car. Then he would pull out a knife, plunge it into his victim and speed away.

A tip  one of more than 500  led police this week to a market inMount Morris Township, outside Flint, where Abuelazam had worked for a month. Investigators talked to employees, and a store video showed that he matched the description of the man wanted by authorities.

Abuelazam, however, was gone: He told people he was off to Virginia and hadn’t been seen since his Aug. 1 shift.

Police in Arlington, Va., stopped him for a traffic offense Aug. 5 and arrested him on a 2008 misdemeanor assault charge from Leesburg, Va., where he had lived and worked in thementalhealth field. A hammer and a knife were found inside the Chevrolet Blazer, which was returned to him after his brief detention. There was no national alert for Abuelazam or his vehicle.

Virginia authorities “had no idea at that time that he was involved in these crimes,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton in Michigan said.

Abuelazam eventually returned to Michigan, obtained a $3,000 ticket to Tel Aviv from his uncle and made it as far as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where officers snatched the man in flip-flops and shorts after he was paged over the intercom.

The youngest victim was 15; the oldest 67. At least 15 victims were black, although there’s no evidence that race played a role, Leyton said. A motive was not known.

Abuelazam is charged with attacking Antwione Marshall of Flint, who said he was going into his apartment building two weeks ago when an assailant approached and asked for help with his car. Three of his organs were cut, and he has a long scar from his chest to his pelvic area.

Marshall, 26, said he wants to retaliate but “I’ll let God handle it. Every time I look at my scar, I get angry.”

Killed were David Motley, 31, Emmanuel A. Muhammad, 59, Darwin Marshall, 43, and Arnold R. Minor, 49, all of Flint, and Frank Kellybrew, 60, of Flint Township. They died before Aug. 4, when authorities concluded the attacks were the work of aserial killer.

Even if the assaults are over, at least some fear remains inFlint, the battered industrial city 14 of the stabbings, including all five deaths, occurred.

“It makes you not want to give anybody a hand with a vehicle if it breaks down,” Aldridge Gardner, 46, said as he waited for a bus. “If it was a female, I would help her. If it was a guy, no, I’d be skeptical.”

____

Associated Press Writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Corey Williams in Flint, Mich.; David Runk in Flint; Ed White inDetroit; Greg Bluestein in Atlanta; Nafeesa Syeed inWashington; and Matthew Barakat in Leesburg, Va., contributed to this report.

Leave a Reply


Notice: ob_end_flush(): failed to send buffer of zlib output compression (0) in /homepages/24/d109934528/htdocs/icfda/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5420