If anyone's head should roll, it should be the officers responsible for the slain officer's training.
The following is an editorial from back in Feburary, 2001...Read on...
It is a matter of life and death - and two paidFebruary 18, 2001
The tragic deaths of Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Schwenz and Centreville Patrolman Michael Nickerson send an urgent message that at least two elected officials seem to have missed.
Their slayings demonstrate the urgent need to shore up Maryland's mental health department.
Maryland's Mental Hygiene Administration faces a nearly $42 million deficit, which means the administration may be forced to stop making payments to hospitals and other mental health service providers throughout Maryland. The Maryland House Appropriations subcommittee was warned this week that in May or June the money could run out at least until July 1, when new, but inadequate, appropriations begin.
Four years ago, Maryland changed the way it funded psychiatric care clinics. The upshot is that some clinics have gone under because they were not reimbursed quickly enough for the care they provided. Others are struggling because they say the money the state offers is inadequate to cover the cost of providing necessary services to Maryland's mental patients.
Queen Anne's County State's Attorney David Gregory can say that Francis Zito got adequate help, but we think the record quite vividly says otherwise.
A 1999 evaluation of Francis Mario Zito indicates he suffers from bipolar disorder and has had multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. The evaluation was filed by Dr. Donald W. Nachand, Ph.D., who conducts pre-trial forensic screening evaluations for Maryland's Mental Hygiene Administration.
A search of Maryland District Court computer records for cases involving Zito revealed a dozen criminal cases dating back to 1993 in which he was charged with battery, assault and other offenses. Many of the cases were nol prossed, or dropped, by prosecutors; placed on the stet, or inactive, docket; or ended in acquittals. District court records also show that six times between 1993 and 1998 - and one time last month - a judge ordered Zito to be taken by police for an emergency evaluation at a hospital after petitions were filed by his mother, Betty Zito.
Mrs. Zito filed six similar petitions over a five-year period. Each time the judge ordered Frank Zito be taken to a hospital for examination and emergency care. Five times Zito was taken by police to Kent & Queen Anne's Hospital and one time to Memorial Hospital at Easton.
In a Jan. 14, 1993 petition, Mrs. Zito wrote that her son was diagnosed as schizo-affective. Frank Zito roamed town frightening people; slapped his mother and grabbed her head and shook her, the petition said.
In each petition Mrs. Zito filed, the judge found probable cause "to believe that the emergency evaluee has shown the symptoms of a mental disorder and that there does appear to be clear and imminent danger of the evaluee's doing bodily harm to the evaluee or another."
Why were Mrs. Zito and the townspeople of Centreville subjected to years and years of this behavior? At some point shouldn't there have been relief?
In his proposed budget, Gov. Parris Glendening earmarks $3 million to help pay the mental health debt. But a state policy analyst says a minimum of $10 million is needed. He also warns of serious job vacancy rates in Maryland's 11 psychiatric treatment facilities.
If you ever doubted that mental health services were a life and death matter you need only look to the tragedy played out at Frank Zito's trailer in Centreville the evening of February 13.
If the deaths of Deputy Schwenz and Patrolman Nickerson have touched your hearts as they have ours, call or write the Eastern Shore Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly and Gov. Glendening this week. Tell them you want Maryland's psychiatric services properly funded - NOW.
They won't execute this poor bastard...they'll be lucky if he's found competent to stand trial. I also found a LTE from a neighbor of Zito's who advised the entire neighborhood had attempted to get him help and the Health Department refused.
And again, there is nothing more dangerous than dealing with a mentally ill person in his home...and no more dangerous entry than into a trailer...why these two officers choose to enter is beyond me. My guess would be that they had delt with him before and believed him to be harmless...or they were rookies and didn't know him at all.
Unfrigginbelievable...and absolutely tragic that two officers had to die because MD would rather build two stadiums than fund public health.