"I ain't OK," he said. "My nephew's dead."

[n2doc]

South L.A. woman allegedly shoots 2 sons
5-year-old dies; 1 1/2-year-old is in critical condition. The woman, 25, threatened suicide before being arrested.

Ben Dixon, brother of the mother who allegedly shot her two children, speaks with police near the apartment where the shooting took place. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / October 17)

By Tami Abdollah
October 18, 2009

A young mother who allegedly shot her two boys Saturday -- killing her 5-year-old and critically wounding her 1 1/2 -year-old -- shouted, "I've wasted my life!" from her balcony and threatened to kill herself before she was arrested, police and neighbors said.

LaTonya Dixon, 25, called 911 about 8:30 a.m. Saturday and told the dispatcher that she had killed her children. When officers arrived at the three-unit apartment complex in the 7200 block of South Gramercy Place in South Los Angeles, the woman was standing on a second-floor balcony waving a handgun.

After hearing a woman scream, next-door neighbor Sandra Jones said, she saw Dixon on the balcony rail and yelled out, "No, don't jump! You have and the baby to think about! They're going to need you."

As officers arrived at the beige stucco apartment, Dixon told police to shoot her. She was walking in and out of her apartment with a handgun, police said. Officers ordered her numerous times to drop the gun, but she refused, police said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mother18-2009oct18,0,6949060.story

[xchrom]

1. what a nightmare. nt

[EndersDame]

2. Mental Illness Sucks ! Does any one know what kind of public mental illness clinics and/or out reach

programs L.A. has? I think that alot more funding should go into these types of programs at least in Texas (i live here and options for my mom suck) To avoid these types of tragedies

[Jamastiene]

3. Here we go...

Uhm, don't blame that on mental illness. There are plenty of us who have mental illnesses who are NOT into infanticide. Give me a fucking break already.

[ecstatic]

4. There are many forms of mental illness... I think in some way

all murderers suffer from some form of mental illness. But that does NOT mean that all people with a type of mental illness are capable of murder.

[EndersDame]

5. Well I am no doctor but she mentioned killing her self

Kinda sounds like postpartum psychosis. I have dealt with mental illness all my life (my mother) and realize not everyones mental illness manifests it self like this. I just think that this woman was not in her right mind and in need of some serious medication and therapy

[CanSocDem]

6. Uh....

....I hope you're not suggesting killing your child is rational?


.

[snagglepuss]

8. It's true that a mental illness doesn't mean the mentally ill are killers.

One of the stigmas people with mental illness face is that many people believe that very thing. But people who jump to this conclusion are profoundly uninformed and their ignorance causes alot of pain.

Peoples ignorance about mental illness prevent many people who need help from seeking it because they don't want to be labelled as potential child killers. They can't bear the thought of people thinking they are crazy. Its possible this is what happened to the young mother. Its very likely she has a mental illness but she didn't seek help because she didn't want to be labelled as crazy or its possible she didn't know she needed help so she never sought it.

When mother a kills children it is not unreasonable to assume that she has a untreated mental illness.

[FreakinDJ]

7. You have and the baby to think about!

yep

[TwilightGardener]

9. Murderous chickenshit. Killed her babies (at least one), turned the gun on herself

and suddenly realized it was a horrible way to die. Hope they lock her up for life. And no, I don't feel any more sympathy or understanding for her than if this were a man.

[Sinti]

10. Am I the only one who sees these things as red light warnings?

Are these events trying desperately to tell you about a sickness in the whole of society? Are these the symptoms that should tell you something is wrong? It's "mental illness, yes," but I really feel our entire nation is somewhat sick and needs a cure, badly. They try to blame Hollywood and video-games and such on the right (because it's easy, cheap and politically expedient for them), but I strongly suspect it's something quite different at the root.

[n2doc]

11. nope. These are stress warnings

Sure, they happen during good times as well. But it seems to me that we get one of these stories about someone snapping and killing their family, or cops, or students, or whomever, on a regular basis nowadays. And that doesn't even get into the number of folks who have lost their minds over an imaginary "communist" in the WH.