Escaped insane killer arrested in Washington

[IDemo]

Source: Associated Press

GOLDENDALE, Wash. - Spokane County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Dave Reagan says escapee Phillip Paul is in custody, according to KREM.com.

Paul, a patient from Eastern State Hospital, judged criminally insane, had been missing since Thursday.

Reagan says the FBI and Spokane County Sheriff's Office deputies with U.S. Marshalls were searching for Paul in Goldendale, Wash.

The Klickitat County Sheriff's Office told KING-5 they were assisting Spokane and Yakima County with the search in the Eastern part of their county.

Read more: http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/stories/ktvbn-sep2009-phillip_paul_capture.19d15e5cc.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh, GOOD!

[gateley]

2. Oh, I'm so relieved. How scary for the denizens of Spokane and surrounding areas!

I kinda wondered if maybe he was on his way to Idaho...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Someone gave him a ride!

He was hitchhiking, and someone picked him up. Doesn't that make your blood run cold?

I was called paranoid last night for asserting that the residents of that area would be checking and re-checking their locked doors, and looking around whenever they were outside, because - hey, he wasn't convicted! No, that's what I was told, and then it was wrapped up in how he was "only a patient, not a convicted felon."

Yeah, his having been found to be a homicidal maniac and not a convicted murderer would make us all feel ever so much better about his being on the loose.

I swear, there are some on DU who would defend the Holocaust if they didn't think they'd get in trouble with the mods.............................

[sandnsea]

4. Seriously??

Wow. I was mad because every time something like this happens it gives the death penalty supporters justification for their beliefs. And there were people at DU who don't understand how dangerous this guy is? Wow. That is really scary. My step-son lives up in Medical Lake and drives a truck. He was coming through that area yesterday, from Idaho to Seattle. He's got a girlfriend and new baby in Medical Lake. I'm all for giving the deserving a second and even third chance. But some people are just mentally ill and it's just a damn shame that has to be accepted.

[gateley]

11. They said he'd become "less aware of his psychosis" or something like that --

which is even scarier! I'm so surprised that someone picked him up knowing an insane murderer was on the loose and on the move. :scared:

[EFerrari]

16. It wasn't uncommon for my ex to "forget" what he'd done in an episode

or that he'd had one. Most of the time, those episodes aren't in his awareness at all.

[sandnsea]

32. Was he aware that he had psychotic episodes?

That was the reasont he judge didn't move him towards release to a group home. He was becoming unaware of the fact that he could move into psychosis without medication. Not good for someone proven to be capable of murder. If you don't want these people executed, then you've got to support tight controls of their movement for life. The Andrea Yates case proves that jurors will opt for not guilty if they know the defendant has no chance of release. It's critical that mentally ill criminals be treated appropriately for the benefit of all mentally ill people.

[polmaven]

28. I wouldn't be surprised

if the person who picked him up had no idea that this had happened. The number of people who are completely unaware of anything that is happening in "real time" is astonishing. The driver had probably heard no news at all, about anything, for a while.

2 weeks ago, when I mentioned at work something about troop deployment to Afghanistan, the person to whom I was speaking asked - "Why, is something going on over there?" :crazy:

Some people are just clueless, and don't really care that they are.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. Series!11!!!

The notion that the rights of the mentally ill might be jeopardized by this incident was far more important to some folks than the very real fact that a homicidal patient was on the loose, and my contention that people would be wise to take extra precautions caught me a dose of "paranoid" labeling. My perceived unsympathetic view of the mentally ill - unfounded, as it were - really had some people incensed.

You can see it here, in the subthread - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9038258

Maybe you can tell me if I was missing something, but there's a part of me that keeps thinking that it was just a big joke on me, that I was being put on. But, it was impossible to believe that anyone would disagree that certain practical precautions would have to be taken if this guy were on the loose in the neighborhood.

I'm glad they caught him, and that your stepson didn't pick up any hitchhikers.

I still CANNOT believe that someone picked up this guy! I really can't. AND, it tuns out that he did the same thing in 1991, on an outing, and when he was captured that time, he assaulted one of the cops, who ended up with a separated shoulder. Oddly enough, that same cop was involved in the capture that took place on Sunday.

It's a small world, I guess, in that part of the country when it comes to escaped mental patients and law enforcement officers................

[gateley]

15. Whoa -- that's amazing. Didn't everyone in the area know he was on the loose

and on the move? I would have kept everyone I know with me for every minute until he was caught.

You forgot the word "insane" in your description of him. :scared:

He wasn't convicted, so no problem-o. That's just nuts. :hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. Can you believe it?

I was aghast when I read that.

Oh, yeah, I was a real villain for being less-than-sympathetic - as perceived - to the rights of the mentally ill in this matter, and my belief that people would be exercising lots and lots of extra caution in everyday moves got me labeled "paranoid."

Series!!1!!11

Check out my sub-thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9038258

Sometimes, you know, I am so baffled by where people are coming from, I just keep going, believing that, eventually, they'll make sense. I am very often proven to have been wasting my time, but it's certainly a look at a very different way of thinking, at the very least.

I am being so damn kind here .............. :)

[Treo]

30. Maybe the person

was just passing through the area and didn't know

[Frank Cannon]

34. Can you imagine if he were listening to the radio at the time...

and heard the news bulletin that an "insane killer" matching his hitchhiker's description was on the loose?

When life imitates bad art.

[quiller4]

20. The individual who gave him a ride knew who he was .

Local news reported that the person who picked him up hitchhiking knew him and his family and called the police shortly after he dropped him off.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. So the person felt safe picking him up, obviously?

Small damn world, isn't it? And I wonder if the escapee knew the person would place that call?

This story gets stranger and stranger.

I'm just glad he's back in custody...............................

[LisaL]

29. Apparently he has told that friend that he was released from

a mental institution.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32936969/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

[rooboy]

5. FINALLY someone's holding Dick Cheney accountable! n/t

[dipsydoodle]

25. I was surprised to see

that it was only reply #5 which came up with the right name. :)

[thunder rising]

6. Phillip there is a change in the staffing. Let me introduce you to Nurse Ratched.

[onehandle]

7. Glenn Beck? nt

[Ian David]

8. Was he trying to go see Glenn Beck get The Keys to The City? n/t

[Downwinder]

9. Anybody ever heard of Winnie Ruth Judd? n/t

[uppityperson]

10. Thanks for posting this, did an update in original story, didn't think of doing this

I am very glad they caught him. Suddenly those "maniac has escaped from the insane asylum" stories we used to scare each other with as children weren't so amusing.

[MadMaddie]

12. This guy should have never been on a field trip.

People should be fired for this. How could any sane manager think this was a good idea?

[NBachers]

13. Yeah, let's see, what could possibly go wrong here . . .

[EFerrari]

17. It's not any different that the level of care most people with very serious illnesses

get every day. Once a clinic tried to refuse to refill my ex's anti-psychotic meds RX because he'd missed an appointment. I couldn't believe it. They thought this would "teach him consequences". Like you can teach someone in a psychotic episode.

[old mark]

33. People get stupid over time - we had a rapist where I worked who

used to go home every other weekend to visit mommy....till someone read his old chart and actually found out why he had been institutionalized in the first place.

For patient's (now called "consumers") privacy, many states do not give such information to the staff on the wards or treatment team...they only know what the person has been like recently, not the origional reasons for confinement. The laws on this are all made by state legislators who have little or no knowledge of mantel health problems or illnesses....or much else, evidently.
But I am sure they will blame a nurse and a few psych aides while the big guys get away again.
Same shit, different day.

mark

[LisaL]

14. How long before the hospital takes him on his next field trip?

[TacticalPeek]

22. Points for the headline.

:hippie:

[Wink]

23. He's killing the insane? n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

24. Damn...I'm glad they found Dick Cheney!

[robo50]

26. Will anyone lose their job over this???? I'm just asking, because

I think the really insane people are the ones running that asylum !!

[Algorem]

27. he must be pretty stressed after all this,maybe let him go to a spa for a few days

[LiberalFighter]

31. Thought the article was going to be about Bush.