Bowling Alleys, Mass Murder, Schizophrenia and Hate Crimes

Joseph Cuba, murderer, suffered from schizophrenia

 

Mass murderer Robert Card suffered from schizophrenia

That sounds like a lot for one post. But it so happens that there have been two mass murders (over 4 makes it massive) in bowling alleys in the past few years, the latest in Lewiston, Maine. 

The shooting rampage, took 18 lives and lest 13 injured on October 25, 2023. 

Lewiston is a close-knit community. The shooter is a licensed gun instructor. He teaches people (taught them) how to shoot. And here I thought I would learn, now I'm not so sure trusting an instructor is the best idea. 

And yet, we have learned that Robert Card, the murderer, a whispy 40 years old, suffered from schizophrenia. This is a disorder that can affect the brain to such a degree that the person with schizophrenia hears voices or sometimes sees things that are not there. Usually it presents with auditory hallucinations and they are paranoid, the person is highly anxious and hears voices telling him (it is usually a him, but not always) to shoot others and then, oftentimes, to shoot himself.

Interestingly, we recently heard of another murderer, a man who murdered a child in Plainfield, Illinois, a Muslim child. It is assumed that the murder is a hate crime because the man who murdered the child professed to not trusting his tenants, Muslims, and intended to do something about it. Eviction, apparently, wouldn't do the job, not according to whatever voices Joseph Cuba had in his head. 

'You Muslims must die': 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, said.  to remain behind bars, faces hate crime charges in murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume.

Wadea, 6 years old, didn't have a

chance, stabbed 26 times as Cuba looked him in the eyes. His mother, Hanaan Shahin, fared better, although she suffered stabbings, too.

I read: Many Pro-Palestinian and Muslim faith leaders placed the blame for this crime on the shoulders of President Joe Biden, U.S. support for Israel and the media's coverage of the war.

Not a word about what schizophrenia does to a person. This is unbelievable, to me, that in one case, the case of a MASS murder in a bowling alley, schizophrenia is the known cause, the one to worry about, the one to treat.

And in another, schizophrenia had nothing to do with it. Joe Biden, the support for Israel, this prompted a mentally ill man to go off the edge. 

Every opportunity, every single one, that the media can glom onto to support the underdog, is blown up, is taken way out of proportion, in this case the slaying of a child. The Palestinian people are afraid to not support Hamas. If they don't they are killed. So yes, they have problems. 

But Joe Biden did nothing to cause the death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, no more than he had anything to do with the 18 victims in Lewiston, Maine. 

Should the community of Lewiston have been aware that they had a very sick man in their midst, someone capable of a terrible crime? Apparently the police did know, had been sent out to investigate that possibility six weeks before the shooting. 

Card was a reservist in the US Army. 

Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn, Maine, refused to issue him a silencer because on the request he wrote that he suffered mental illness. The Sagadhac County Sheriff's Office told the press that Card had a 14 day psychiatric inpatient in July due to concerns about scuffles with other soldiers. He had begun hearing insulting voices in the spring which worsened. He accused three men of calling him a pedophile and said he would take care of it. The men, one a friend, calmed him down and they went back to their hotel where he locked himself into his room and wouldn't come out. This resulted in the hospitalization.

Soon thereafter another incident resulted in an Army well-being check on Card.

Once again Card told a friend to stop calling him a pedophile, but he added that he intended to shoot up the drill center. Authorities called him in, apparently, but he did not show. A unit commander told an officer that Card no longer had any military issued weapons, and at a home visit (Card would not come out to talk), his brother told the commander that Card had no personal weapons, and that he and his father would be sure of that. The unit commander let Card alone to have time for himself. 

Note. Untreated schizophrenia only gets worse. Time alone to think is very dangerous. Thinking is the opposite of healthy. 

Eighteen people dead.

So. Should the community of Lewiston known about Robert Card? Apparently the important players knew. But not his neighbors. Probably not the people bowling. 

Should the Plainfield community have known about the strange man who rented his home to a Palestinian family? Should they have known he would be dangerous?

I hate the word should. But I will say that when we get to know the people in our neighborhood, as Mr. Rogers always advised, we are more likely to find such things out. 

That's modern day community mental health. 

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