[Cerek the Barbaric]

A very sad and tragic incident for everyone involved. My heart goes out to the loved ones of all the victims, including the family of the young man.

Rokenn - I doubt this incident will be "blamed" on the Highlander movies or TV show. Paranoid delusions and irrational behavior are common symptoms of schizophrenia. This young man may have enjoyed the Highlander series, but if it hadn't been that, it would have been something else. This is definitely a case of a mental disease being the cause.

Sir Kenyth - Just a countercomment to your remark about the family not monitoring his medication. My former coworker has a brother who is schizophrenic. He has had a couple of "episodes" himself where he entered public businesses and acted in a somewhat threatening manner when he wasn't taking his medication. The problem with the disease is that - when they take their medication - the person suffering from schizophrenia is as "normal" as anybody else. That's why he was able to be a volunteer fireman and EMT. Unfortunately, the medicine works so well, that they start to believe they are "cured" and don't need it anymore..so they quit taking it...which leads to delusions and further resistance to resuming thier medication. My friends family DID monitor their brother very closely. One of them checked on him every single day...but there is NO WAY to MAKE them take the medicine. When the brother went off his medication, he believed his family was "out to get him" and that they were all plotting against him. For cases such as this, the ONLY way to monitor thier medications is to have them put in an institution or other facility where they are given daily injections of their medication. This isn't as easy as it sounds, because (even in an institution) the treatment of daily injections has to be approved by the State before it can be implemented (in NC anyway).

My coworkers brother is a perfect example. After his last "episode", the family finally arranged to have him put in a facility for schizophrenics. They also managed to have the daily injections approved. The brother improved rapidly and was soon very much "normal" again. He did so well, in fact, that the facility called the family in to discuss discharging him and allowing him to return home. He would still recieve the daily injections from a home health nurse. Well, he came home and did very well for awhile, but he recently started refusing to take his medication. Within just a couple of weeks, he started having the same paranoid delusions that his family was "out to get him" again. The last I heard from my friend, they were trying to get him back into the facility he had been staying at.