Monday, August 27, 2007

Any Guesses What the Story On The Suspect Is?

There's no apparent motive or connection to the victim, and note the description of the suspect's behavior from the August 27, 2007 Colorado University Daily Camera:
A University of Colorado freshman, identified by family members as Michael George Knorps, is hospitalized with a knife wound after being cut outside of the student center this morning, the first day of classes on the Boulder campus.

...

The suspect, whom 7NEWS has named as Kenton Astin, 39, of Boulder, stabbed himself several times in the chest after the incident, which happened around 9:40 a.m. on the west terrace of the University Memorial Center, Hilliard said.
Police subdued Astin with a Taser gun, and he was also rushed to Boulder Community Hospital with serious wounds, CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said. Officers are at the hospital, waiting to arrest him.
Wiesley said the suspect was holding a knife and yelling incoherently when Knorps walked by. The student was ignoring the man, who then grabbed him from behind and slashed at his neck.
Police don’t think the suspect, who drove onto campus this morning, is a student. He is not listed in CU's directory.
“It appears to be a random thing at this point,” Wiesley said.
...

The suspect was yelling that he had a bomb in his backpack and was going to blow it up, police said. The Boulder County bomb squad responded to the scene, but there were no explosives in the pack.
Officials also tested “something suspicious” found in Astin’s gray Jeep Cherokee, which was parked on the south side of the UMC, but it was not an explosive, Hilliard said.
How many more of these incidents do we need before we start to address the failure of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill? Incidents like this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or these accounts of people who starved themselves to death, and family, friends, and police, looked on helpless to do anything about it. And these are just a few that I could pull out on short notice.

UPDATE: Yup. I was right. From the August 28, 2007 Chicago Tribune:
The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Kenton Drew Astin, worked at CU last year as a cashier at the Alferd Packer Grill at the student center, school officials said. He was arrested and hospitalized Monday with serious stab wounds, the school said.

Astin was sent to a state mental hospital in 2001 after being accused of stabbing a 21-year-old Longmont man. Court records show Astin pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on charges including attempted first-degree murder in that case.

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