Dr. Alan Lipman on Holmes: ‘He Should’ve Been Followed, Not Let Go!’
Today, there were two big developing items in the Colorado theater shooting. First, a report received earlier said that the psychiatrist seeing accused shooter James Holmes warned others at the University of Colorado about his behavior in the weeks ahead of the shooting, but nothing was done.
Second, Fox News also learned of a bizarre phone call made to a MTV star before July’s deadly attack. The man who received the phone call, named “Diggity Dave,” said that a young man who called himself James Holmes phoned him at a local radio station in June twice about an upcoming film he was working on. The film, which is a take-off of the Batman series, is called "Suffocator of Sins." Holmes allegedly said he was obsessed with this movie and Dave described him as ‘lonely.’
Dr. Alan Lipman took a close look at all of these factors on today’s America Live.
Firstly, he said people should look at the “Diggity Dave” account with a bit of caution, because we need to keep in mind that he has a movie coming out, saying, “He may be at complete good will, but there may be a retrospective bias. Many people are fascinated with these things, including people who don’t commit these crimes."
When it comes to the psychiatrist situation, Lipman believes it’s “utterly critical” to further investigate what was, and wasn't, done with the doctor's warnings. He believes this whole scenario followed a classic pattern, and the fact that Holmes was about to drop out of school when the doctor was about to inform the university of the goings-on just showed that it was the next step in his deterioration. Lipman also said that it's even more reason to be concerned about this individual and to still take steps to make sure that he is not going to be a threat to himself or to others in the community.
“His dropping out of the university or his moves to drop out of the university should have been a signal that this was a reason to take action to do something.”
He continued, “If there was deterioration so great that there is a Tarasoff warning that this person is gravely disabled, they are a danger to themselves or others, such that we’d have to warn the authorities to take action, to prevent some kind of harm from happening, this person should’ve been followed - not let go!”
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