Police: Man who killed firefighter mad over traffic delay

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Police: Man who killed firefighter mad over traffic delay
Updated 4:57 pm, Monday, September 14, 2015

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A motorist accused of deliberately and fatally hitting a firefighter with his car told police he was angry with the firefighters collecting money for charity and slowing traffic, court records show.

Grant Taylor told officers during an interview that he expressed his anger with firefighters Wednesday on a Lansing street and that their response to his frustrations did not satisfy him. He said he drove away, then turned around and hit Dennis Rodeman — a firefighter involved in the conversation, the Lansing State Journal reported (http://on.lsj.com/1Mn8go3 ) Monday.

The 35-year-old firefighter was participating in Fill the Boot, an annual fundraising campaign for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and International Association of Firefighters. Rodeman, whose wife was pregnant with their first child, later died at a hospital.

Taylor, 22, was charged Thursday with murder, failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death and fleeing police. The Associated Press left a message for defense attorney Stacia Buchanan seeking comment about the allegations.








Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Police-Man-who-killed-firefighter-mad-over-6503816.php

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[center]

Grant Taylor [/center]

[Kotya]

1. Found this bit of info at the end of the article:

"Taylor's mother, Karen Taylor, petitioned Ingham County Probate Court twice in the past two years to involuntarily hospitalize him for mental health reasons, the newspaper reported, citing court records. Psychiatrists who evaluated Taylor diagnosed him with psychosis and bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses."

[Chemisse]

3. So many of these violent incidents come back to inadequate treatment for mental illness.

Not that being mentally ill necessarily makes one violent - far from it - but the specific types of illness that can lead to violence need a lot more attention.

[Kotya]

5. What's frustrating is when you have people like Taylor

Who were known to be suffering from mental illness and whose family tried to get them help, only to fall through the cracks.

Now we have two families destroyed and a young man, mentally ill, untreated, who will undoubtedly be heading to prison for decades.

[840high]

6. He did get help. Stopped taking

his meds.

[KentuckyWoman]

13. ^^^^ THIS ^^^^

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/09/14/police-taylor-angered-firefighters-traffic-backup/72261684/

[Kotya]

14. Taking meds can be a struggle

The problem being that many mentally ill people don't feel sick. In their minds, they feel normal. The meds that help treat their illness makes them feel strange, abnormal. So they quit taking them.

Many who have dealt with a mentally ill family member can attest to this frustration.

[840high]

16. Yes - we just went through

this with a young family member. Hope we made him understand how important it is to keep taking his meds.

[Kurska]

22. Psychosis could mean schizophrenia

When the meds give you horrible muscular side-effects and the voices inside your head are screaming that they are poison whenever you try to take them, I can't imagine what it would be like trying to keep on them.

The outpatient model is a total underfunded failure.

[LanternWaste]

24. Taking medication often requires help in and of itself.

Taking medication often requires help in and of itself.

[duhneece]

9. One of the most challenging laws that need to be enacted or changed is one you just hit on

How do we balance the need for someone to be able to have someone else involuntarily hospitalized for mental health reasons and the need to protect the oddball, the eccentric from being hospitalized by someone who doesn't like them or thinks they're too weird?

[Crowman1979]

17. I say they should only be involuntarily hospitalized if they have committed acts of violence...

...or threats of violence.

[duhneece]

18. Threats of violence may be the tough call

What one person sees as a threat, another sees as blowing off steam. "Everybody has verbalized some sort of violence they'd like to see come to another person." Who heard the threat & is reporting it (could they have a hidden agenda? Do they just dislike this person)?
I actually agree with you 100%, but have been part of our local Behavioral Health Local Collaborative legislative committee and hear discussions about this very thing.

[Crowman1979]

19. Well how about only if it's an unedited recording?

Either on video or audio. But I see you point on relying on only witnesses with no recorded evidence to back it up.

[duhneece]

21. No one has ever brought up recorded evidence...great idea

It is one piece in this challenging "civil rights vs the right of the public to be safe"....multiple witnesses is another.

[Journeyman]

4. I wonder how much the firefighters were blocking traffic . . .

It seems an odd way to solicit money -- to block traffic in any way. I'd think they'd do better parked in front of a Target or a mall -- more amenities, and a somewhat captivated audience.

Sounds like Taylor's family realized he was unbalanced long ago:

Taylor's mother, Karen Taylor, petitioned Ingham County Probate Court twice in the past two years to involuntarily hospitalize him for mental health reasons, the newspaper reported, citing court records. Psychiatrists who evaluated Taylor diagnosed him with psychosis and bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.

Now an untold number of people have had their lives destroyed or irretrievably altered. Sad story every which direction.

[PSPS]

7. They did one of those "fill the boot" things here a few years ago.

It is pretty aggressive. Traffic backs up with a bunch of firemen running around the stopped cars, going from window to window. It caused so much outrage here that they never did it again. Of course, it doesn't justify running over anyone. But it's a very bad idea and I'm surprised fire departments anywhere are doing this anymore.

[Journeyman]

10. I can't believe they'd do something so stupid. Driving is stressful enough for many people. . .

Here in South California, every once in awhile someone will climb over the fence on an overpass and threaten to jump onto the freeway. If they just jumped, they'd be dead, squashed by cars or a truck. But many times, it's a cry for help, a cry that ofttimes goes awry. I remember a young man some 20 years ago, perched on on overpass just north of San Diego, holding up traffic at evening rush hour. He was there over an hour. Eventually, the commuters were standing outside their cars, chanting for him to jump. Frustrated people, just wanting to get home.

So yeah, I can't imagine the non-thinking that went into this fire department stunt. And worse, to mock the guy for being frustrated. Plenty of people are in ever present danger of losing their jobs if they're only a few minutes late, no matter the reasons. Or they're stressed, trying to get home to pick up their child from school, or to take care of a sick child, say a child with muscular dystrophy.

I've never encountered a "Fill the Boot" event here in the Southland. Hope I never do. And nationwide, if the fire departments are smart, this was the last one that'll be organized.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

12. Well, this will probably be the last.

[Mopar151]

11. Saw this in Brockton, MA

at the big intersection in front of the South Shore Mall. I did'nt like the looks of it - with the cops standing there helping with MA traffic, on a Sat afternoon I saw an extortion racket, especially for anyone "ridin' dirty" (I'm from NH - dodgy old cars are part of the deal)
Basically, they hold up traffic while they shove a boot in your car window kinda like a Syrian checkpoint It's a wonder nobody's snapped before now.

[FSogol]

20. They do it twice a year in Fairfax, Va and it doesn't seem to affect the traffic much.

They stand at major intersections and walk down the median collecting change. Their collection is not aggressive in any way.
It is only fire fighters. I've never seen the police involved.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. They do it here in Chicago from time to time

I admit that one time they really had traffic backed up for two miles at rush hour and I was unpleased, to say the least.

Obviously, no excuse for this mentally ill person.

[packman]

8. They did the "Fill the Boot" every year

at our local intersection and it was always for a child that needed an operation or a family in need. They were doing this a few years back before Obamacare and they went up and down the lines of cars waiting for the light to change, and yes, they were aggressive in shoving that boot into the car. When they came to my car I told the fireman to support universal health care and they wouldn't have to be in traffic trying to raise money for a needed operation on a poor child. It was like talking to the wind.

I support firemen and admire what they do, but they should not be endangering their lives like that - too many idiots in too many cars .

[LanternWaste]

23. Though I often hear the hypothetical scenario that protesters blocking traffic

Though I often hear the hypothetical scenario that protesters blocking traffic potentially cost people their jobs (never supported-- only hypothesized), it seems that their ire will now have to focused on charities and fire fighters for doing the same.