I don't think anyone is unsympathetic to someone with a history of mental illness. But this case just has too many suspicious aspects to it, including the mother's and girlfriend's stories/claims, and the fact that this guy had a gun handy in his BMW. Frankly, a history of mental illness at puberty in the early teens, can't be used to justify violent acts in your 20s without some more consistent history. This is especially true when parents of early teenagers have their children committed to one mental health program or another when they can't control their child's behavior, and the child begins having school truancy and juvenile offender court related problems. Mental health treatment programs are often times used in such circumstances, because parents believe it to be a better alternative to juvenile detention.

My best friend is currently going through just those sorts of problems with her 15 year old daughter, and has been battling her quite ineffectively for over a year and a half. She has tried drugs, she has tried psychiatrists, and still was in court just last week on truancy and shoplifting cases for her child. So, while mental illness is something that we need be cognizant of, we also need to be cognizant of the ways that parents misuse the mental health system to keep their unruly and belligerent kids out of jail, which could just as easily be the case with this guy.