Gomez had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and previously was held under the Baker Act....... An now a life of pudding pops and clean pair of Dr Dentons every day.
Those Baker Act holds are for 72 hours...after that, they’re back on the loose again, with a new round of meds that they may or may not take. I had a friend whose bipolar son was “Baker Acted,” as they call it here, time after time following episodes of violent or suicidal behavior. The last time was when he was about 19, after trying to kill himself in some spectacular public way...and the night after he was released, he did manage to kill himself by slamming his car into a retaining wall. Fortunately, nobody else was injured.
There’s got to be a better way of dealing with the mentally ill. Such as long-term residential commitment...