This probably isn’t the news that the victims and their family wanted to hear, but it sounds like police officers had been warned about the danger James Holmes posed to the public WEEKS before his shooting spree in Aurora, Colorado.
Dr. Lynne Fenton, the psychologist who treated the 24-year-old grad student at the University of Colorado, allegedly contacted a university police officer to warn him about her patient’s behavior.
Considering psychiatrists can only breach patient confidentiality if they become aware of a serious or imminent threat that their patient may harm others, it sounds like Dr. Fenton picked up on some drastic warning signs.
Before taking the case to the cops, the mental health professional referred her patient to the university’s Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment team last June. Unfortunately, Holmes dropped out of school by the time BETA was ready to consider the issue so the investigation wasn’t continued.
It’s hard to digest the possibility that the tragic massacre could have been avoided, but we won’t go pointing fingers. James Holmes slipped through the cracks of detection and, short of traveling through time, there is nothing anybody can do to change that.
At best, all we can do is look to the future and try to improve the various systems in place to prevent incidents like this from happening.
[Image via Ramey Pix.]