(Feb. 20, 2013) Psychologist and author Xavier Amador was scheduled to appear on CNN last week to address the mental condition of Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles police officer who shot and killed four people in Southern California and triggered a massive manhunt before killing himself in a remote mountain cabin. Amador was bumped for network scheduling reasons.
In an email to supporters that addressed the story he had hoped to share on CNN, here is what Dr. Amador wrote:
“The LAPD and media focus on how to put the fire out, but ignore how the fire started....
“First there is reliable evidence of serious mental illness in former officer Dorner’s ‘manifesto’ and in the LAPD’s records I obtained from CNN. Evidence of thought disorder and delusion are present. He was experiencing psychosis, the result of a brain disorder not depravity.
"'You never even met the man, how can you diagnose him?!'
"I have testified in many trials involving mentally ill persons (state, federal and military courts,) and my testimony and that of other experts who have only the subject’s written explanations (e.g., a 11,352 word manifesto like Dorner’s) and credible collateral sources of information to rely on, were judged acceptable. Courts accept these diagnostic opinions routinely. In other words, we were never given the chance to meet with the person; nevertheless, with reliable information that others can independently review we can sometimes make a valid diagnosis. And every day in emergency rooms psychiatrists rely on the reports of family members and arresting police officers when prescribing treatments for paranoid mentally ill people who refuse to speak with them....
“Given the factual evidence I reviewed, I believe the LAPD should have guessed, or at least suspected, they had a mentally ill officer and should have sent him for help before deciding he was a liar and firing him. They essentially threw gasoline on the fire of his psychosis." Specifically, Dr. Amador says, the department failed to have Dorner evaluated by its mental health services even though he had repeatedly asked for "reintegration training" as a war veteran - and been refused.
“Perhaps better police training in identifying the warning signs of mental illness would have led to a different response. The only way to know, is to have an independent review of how Officer Dorner’s complaint was handled and an assessment of whether signs of mental illness were missed or ignored. I believe this tragedy, the lives lost and terror so many had to live with, could have been avoided had this war veteran-LAPD officer been evaluated for mental health problems."
It's too bad Dr. Amador didn't get a chance to deliver his message to a national audience. No matter what eventually is determined in Dorner's case, identifying warning signs of mental illness is important for law enforcement officers who are often the first responders in a psychiatric crisis - and for all of us.
Read our backgrounder on law enforcement and people with severe mental illness.
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