Police: Fla. gunman called 911 before killing 6

[The Straight Story]

MIAMI (AP) — The man who shot and killed six people at his South Florida apartment complex before being gunned down by police called 911 hours before the shooting to say he was being followed.

In the bizarre, 12-minute call, Pedro Vargas asked a dispatcher to run the license plate of a vehicle outside his building. He also said he was the victim of someone doing witchcraft against him.

A recording of the call was released Wednesday by the Hialeah Police Department.

At one point, the dispatcher asked to speak with Vargas' mother. The elderly woman got on the phone and told the dispatcher her son was acting disturbed and that she wanted to get him an appointment with a psychiatrist.

She declined a dispatcher's offer to send police to the apartment.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/police-fla-gunman-called-911-killing-6

[Brickbat]

1. It's too bad we don't have a useful, humane 911 for mental help.

If the police had come to the apartment, what would have happened? They might have gotten him into a system that could help. They might have shot him. They might have criminalized his behavior and put him in jail.

In any case, it's another example of someone falling through the increasingly large cracks in our system -- and then lashing out.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. And yet how many stories have we read recently of police

brutalizing people (if not outright killing them) over minor infractions, wrong addresses or making the mistake of summoning the police to report a real crime.

The police are looking increasingly useless -- assuming they don't kill you themselves.