Hometown Hero - Someone They Knew with Tamron Hall 

Americans - if you have a mentally ill person in your household then GET RID OF ALL THE GUNS IMMEDIATELY!!

Really interesting story. Terrible verdict. I fear for Mark in prison. The victim being a great guy should not have come into this at all and swayed the jury.

@@outlawJosieFoxIt was the right verdict. His “F you, old man” statement says it all.

Or even get him some medical help. They knew he was to be released on Friday they didn't even go to get him. Seems like their solution was just to avoid him. He was out there driving with an untreated mental illness.. Having access to guns.. How?

So true

As a gun owner myself, you are 100% correct

My thoughts exactly! Did I hear the mother say she knew he had schizophrenia? They knew he was doing meth before he came home to detox? The mother wouldn't be alone with her own son? And then, out of left field, Mark starts talking about his high school coach in a negative way? That should have been a clear red flag that he's literally targeting someone he knows! I'd say the 'least' the parents should have done is take his illness way more serious earlier on and get him in the hospital! He absolutely needed to be admitted and on medication and off the streets and away from people. But then again this is in America and if you don't have money, you don't get help! Not like that here in Canada. Everyone gets healthcare and no one is turned away. This is too tragic of a story that absolutely should have had a different outcome.

the gun case was locked, he broke it open. I understand it was a gun cabinet and not a gun safe

Excellent point👏👏👏

what it says is that his parents should have had the killer committed for good.

But she left him alone knowing he was unsafe.

Exactly I have 3 daughters if you make me afraid of you I don’t need nor want them in my home

As a mother of a son with this illness, there are so many limitations placed on us. My son was threatening to kill me, I called mental crisis, and they told me it didn't sound that bad. Until you have lived it, don't be so quick to judge. Experience is the best teacher.

He didn't actually live with them. He had his own apartment. When he was released from the mental hospital he couldn't get into his apartment, so his parents took him in for the night. The next morning at 7:47 AM is when the 911 call is made after he shot Coach Thomas. Fairly difficult to be able to make your house safe for a paranoid schizophrenic in that time frame. They thought he was going to be in the hospital for at least a week.

@@Matt-cr4vv they could have easily bought trigger guards for the guns in a weeks time. If the mom didn’t even feel safe alone with him they should have at least had trigger guards for their guns.

Consider the part of America where these people were living. There are states in the US that place a much higher value on gun ownership than on human life.

@@john-brady sadly seems to be the case. Even murdered children won't budge the 2nd amdt.

You stole this out of my mouth. If someone decide to exercise their rights to carry they should do so contemplating their household. Not just themselves. Their son killed someone because he had access to their guns.

And is!!

I get that! I’ve always noticed and enjoyed her so much as a host/presenter.

me too💯

The way she speaks and she just has a presence about her. I love Tamron myself! She's just a great woman!

@@kelsthegreat1596 ooo

It is terribly difficult to live with a schizophrenic, especially if they don’t take their medication.

My sister is Schizophrenic and thankfully she takes her medicine but she still has strange trains of thoughts even on her meds. I don’t think she would ever hurt anyone she is very meek and mild. But it is so hard dealing with a family member who has these symptoms

Exactly. His parents bear some responsibility in this. Don't wait for society to jump in and offer help. Be proactive. Demand it. They should have done more. It's upsetting that they don't take any accountability.

My mother was schizophrenic. When I was a baby the black nanny ran away and took me to her house. The first time she did it she was so scared because of course she had run away with a white baby. My dad knew the issue and told her you do what you got to do. My mother was seen by the best doctors in America, including the docs that are famous for the movie "Three Famous of Eves" Eventually my dad stopped believing the doctors and nanny's and decided she was crazy because of him. He left me with her. I spent the next years sleeping in the bathtub so she could not kill me. It was the only solid oak door she could not get through. Every day she would try killing me. She came to my high school peeping in the windows and all they did was tell me to take her home. Not one person in my family tried to help me or give me another place to live. I left at 17.

​@@s.d.8561 Totally agree 💯

Agreed.

Facts

Absolutely. I have been missing her! A beautiful compliment added to the Court TV family.

@@sherryrunslate9678 *complement *Court TV

She's one of the better ones for sure. Most ethnics allowed to be front and center usually have an aggressive tone and mannerisms. Hall has been taught correctly and it's _clearly_ translated into her being a phenomenal presenter and all around incredible female journalist

Agree.The concept of mental illness is too complex for the ignorant people of Iowa.The jurors should have rendered a mental insanity verdict.

@@January. if you never lived it, you have no idea.

absolutely agree, and the problem is 90% of people don't understand mental illness's, like schizophrenia, bipolar etc were they truly believe what their demons are telling him to do, it makes people think that he were fine and not insane, in reality he is insane. jail is not the place for him at all, he needs to go were he can be treated for life. putting someone like him in jail is inhumane and a form of torture cuz even with the proper meds the environment will make it worse on him, people need to remember he truly believes in what he is feeling. its sad he will not get the help he really needs in jail, he needs to be put in an institute where he can be treated for life.

The part where I hold his parents accountable is having the guns in the house with his condition. They could have pretended to have gotten rid of the guns and moved them so Mark would know where they were. Or they should have gotten a gun safe

@@FaithandNova he unlocked the gun safe to get the gun.

100%

This happens more frequently than what we would like to think. My son has schizophrenia and there have been times I've begged the hospital to keep him and they would discharge him. It is awful for the family

it's a very slippery thing. He is an adult and has freedoms. Understand people use mental health issues to control others also, so the medical people walk a fine line. IF they did the notifications he could sue them for violating his freedoms/HIPPA laws. WE as a country have to come up with something to help with this.

I work at a law office. A client of ours with mental illness was released without any of his physic meds and didn't get them filled. His 80 yr old father didn't know how to get his son his meds, client cut off his monitor and went awol and now has a warrent. He left us messages about hearing voices and people are after him. Why could the jail not give him a couple pills just to get him by till they figured out how to get his meds. The jail could have called the med refill in but nothing was done. He was doing awesome in jail and within just 4 days he lost his mind. The mental medical world is a f'n mess. I have a 19 yr old son with mental illness as well and I've struggled his entire life trying to get us help and to this day we still struggle. Insurance is a big problem, being seen is a huge problem, the wait is long. It's all awful and it's getting worse. Sorry for this long comment. Thank u for reading.

@@sleepypisceslove1586 I agree completely. The only reason I can figure on why the jail couldn’t just help him out by giving him even a couple of days worth of meds is because they do not care. Our entire prison system needs a MAJOR OVERHAUL to say the very least. Prisoners are still people & we should be focusing on helping prepare them to be outside prison walls with rehabilitation etc not treating them like animals so they end up returning to jail over & over. I sincerely understand about your son as our oldest son (29yrs old) has struggled with some issues himself & it’s absolutely heartbreaking that you have to fight for them tooth & nail even when they’re adults because we’re the only ones who care enough to fight for them. And you’re right about insurance. What a PAIN.

Exactly, if she herself was afraid to be alone with him, why unleash him on innocent unsuspecting people.

Good point. She said she didn’t feel safe at home with him.

Exactly....

@@LisaWhitehorn The mom seem weird why was she laughing

My neighbor right now says she's hearing voices and says that the voices tell her my female roomie wants to her family she even confronted my friend and said please take me and not my dad like we've never met your dad but now I'm sure she's got the same thing as he does and the police didn't come until she called 911 and said there was dead bodies in the house and they literally came took her to the ER and she literally walked out right back here so it is frustrating that mental illness is still not being treated properly

I completely agree.

💯! Apples fall directly from the tree!

I have no idea but is it the law in all 50 states that the patient's family be notified?

@@bunnylover6481 No. If a patient is released from the hospital, they are no longer deemed a threat to self or others, and therefore there is no need to inform anyone. (I'm not saying I agree or disagree with the logic, but that's how it works.)

@@mssarabeth82 Thanks. I didn't think so. When his mom said he was released days before they thought he would be I thought maybe it was just a 72 hour hold.

That's kind of a moot point though. Because the parents figured it out and went and got him. He was in their care when he committed murder. The bigger question is: Should he have been released in the first place? To me, the fact that they didn't notify next of kin doesn't play into what happened.

HIPPA.

I’m pretty sure she is a vampire… look at her teeth

She really is such a class act. So happy she’s with court tv now too!

Me too! She also has her own talk show! Very happy for her, she deserves everything she has worked hard for! 💕

Agree with you, schizophrenia is not even fully understood. This guy shouldn't be in prison.

But if the illness has gone as far as killing, that means no one is safe. He is better in jail it's safer for everyone

@@isemaciamwase9804 He can be sentenced to life to a facility for the criminally mentally ill like Broadmoor Hospital. He'll be kept out of society, but also recieve the help he needs.

I think he incorporated sane activities in order to complete his completely insane belief that Coach Thomas was in his head/oppressing him. That kid was insane.

Exactly. He may have known what he was doing but he was acting based on a delusion created in his mind that told him the Coach was a danger to him. I would think acting under delusion would be the definition of insanity. Insanity doesn't mean you have no idea what's going on. The definition is having severe mental illness.

pre dates Covid? It's first observed in the Bibles!

'Mental health' is as old as humanity which certainly pre-dates Covid.

The cops won't help, just act on emotions and political extremism

I went through a similar situation with my Mother and what you say is true.

@@boggo7831 because it isn't their jobs. That would be social services job. Police recommend to SS a person/family and it then falls into the experts hands. At some point we need to stop expecting Police to be everything to everyone.

You are so right. We tried to get help for a family member a few yrs ago and went to the mental health dept to have him committed and they told us unless they have proof of that person hurting themselves or someone else they could not do anything. Today he is in prison on gun charges. It's a damn shame and you can thank our screwed up government for this. 95 percent of homeless or drug addicts and mentally ill people. Look at California and New York for example....

Yes, the entire country can thank President Reagan for shutting down the mental facilities and making it so difficult to get quality help. Ironic that he suffered from Alzheimer's at the end of his life.

Is this about Tamron hall or the sick boy ?

No shouldn’t have been left alone. The problem is what do you do with him because those qualified to help, mental health experts, hands don’t have baby sitting services. They should!!!

I think that they were just caught off guard because they weren't expecting him to be released and so that might have came into contention with the weapons not being completely secured or taken out. But your other question about them leaving him alone... Who was supposed to stay with him. He hadn't committed a new crime so there is no place for the police to be involved. I'm sure that they didn't fathom him doing what he did. At that point they had a fear of the "unknown" and I can't imagine being in such a helpless position.

You make a good point, the parents should have removed all guns from the house. They were in a locked gun drawer but apparently one pretty easy to break into. I can't blame the son though. He was in the grip of extreme mental illness, completely delusional. He showed no signs of being an evil person before the schizophrenia.

@@Chauna30 It’s a terrible situation to deal with but in the end if I’m afraid to be home alone with this family member, they cannot be left alone.

@@kenziemaureen175 Understandable. So what is the solution?

You are so absolutely correct. Its not mental.retardation he suffers from, its schizophrenia, i think its deliberate ignorance these lawmakers feign just to get a conviction. I have swen it happen again and again

I hope you know better than to have guns and ammunition in your home.

If you watch enough true crime, you will see that rarely with parents (or children) of murderers believe their "angels" would do such a thing--even when they are caught red-handed. It's deeply set denial and saving face because they can't deal with the implications.

And then blame the lack of understanding of mental health. Why can’t she start the initiative

Snail 🐌- agreed.

Exactly

They needed to wake up out of their dream of denial. Their egos wouldn't allow them to acknowledge his scary behavior. "That couldn't be MY son!" Instead of saying, "He's sick. He needs help now and we won't stop until we get it but we are not unleashing him on society."

Your child have demons, they a real, they enter your child trugh your family sins, his sins. The door is open to satan and demons. You need to close that door by repenting from your sins and asking God Jesus Christ to deliver him from demons and generational curses. Only Jesus Christ can help you. If your child have episode tell him to call name of Jesus Christ and demons will flee, also ask him to pray to God Jesus Christ and repent from his sins. No amount understanding or pills will help your child, only Jesus Christ can. Mark killed his teacher because demons knew he was trying to lead him out in to the light, the problem is, his teacher did not know God Jesus Christ he had no protection from the Lord. Seek Jesus Christ with all of your heart and you will find him. He is your only unswer, dont wait till your child hurt you or others. Call on the name of Jesus Christ today ask him to save you from eternal hell and your child.

Definitely Mrs Somalia. I agree 100%.

@@dancer49lives6 thanks love

You mean he didn't murder the coach?

@@lemardyc he did, but being a small town and everyone knowing him, the the killer was already guilty before trial and even during trial he was so heavily medicated that he wouldn't even have known what was going on

And by reading your comment, you can't read a person.

I totally disagree with your assessment of this mother. She was struggling to get help for her then 19 yr.old son, who was considered a legal adult. He was old enough to get drafted, serve his country, die for his country, vote, get married, etc. but they did not keep him in the medical facility to get continued help? The parents were no longer legally responsible for him at that point. They released him without notice to the community or his family. They knew his diagnosis, yet his insurance probably ran out? They released him back into society when they knew he wasn’t better. Remember in court he was medicated! Therefore not able to display his true behaviors. Meaning that the true nature of his illness was not apparent to the jurors & people in the gallery. Of course, his parents were in shock at all that happened with their son. No one knows, including the doctors, what causes these changes within these people’s minds. They don’t cure them. They only treat their symptoms, so the problem never really goes away. All of this being said, we as outsiders cannot imagine the horror of having to deal with a loved one who was previously considered “normal”, now having turned into someone who now perceives that everyone & everything around them are demons. “Don’t judge others, lest you be judged!”. It’s easy to sit back & point fingers, but the reality is that no one knows how another will react to such a situation. They tried to get him help, the night before the incident, but no one helped them. What more could they do at that point? You can’t have someone committed or arrested for something they “might do”. The police will tell you that there is nothing they can do if a crime has not been committed yet. There inlays the problem. It’s a lot to deal with. I’m sure his parents feel bad enough about what their son has done, how their lives have changed, & they are mourning the loss of their friend, as well as the loss of their son as they once knew him to be when he was still mentally healthy. The parents need to sue the insurance company & the facility that failed their son. They got him into treatment, but the system then failed him & society at large. The family of the victim should join them in the lawsuit themselves, for the loss of their loved one, due to their actions. I pray Mark is getting the help that he needs & that he is able to live some semblance of a life while incarcerated for the remainder of his life. It’s just tragic all the way around.

It’s the family’s responsibility to seek help for Mark. It was the family’s responsibility to ensure that the guns are not accessible to their paranoid schizophrenic son. Now an entire family has lost their loved one, the students who loved coach Thomas are badly affected. And she had the audacity to expect that her son would be scot free on an insanity plea. Lady please 🙄

I agree and Mark doesn't deserve a second chance. If you can do what he did you shouldn't be out in society!

@@22lyric you're mad at a guy like he made remotely sane choices. i beg people to stop acting like serious mental illness is like bad day. we put a guy who tried to kill the president to impress jodie foster in a mental facility...

The are called J-cats in prison: Category J: Mentally Unstable. And they don't belong there, creating even more chaos in a chaotic environment.

🖖👽

Nope, there's a small percentage of people (those who have a familial predisposition to develop schizophrenia and/or to possibly experience psychosis) that are more sensitive to thc than the average person and for them a bad experience with being high can trigger the mental issues and they can actually experience psychosis because of it. Meth is more likely to cause severe psychosis (specifically meth psychosis) I believe, also because it makes you not eat/it's a massively intense amfetamine but most of all YOU DONT SLEEP and a lack of sleep makes the a person become unhinged and confused way faster than when they're actually well rested. Not nitpicking, just saying there's a small group of people who actually would be smart to be careful with weed as they are more sensitive to it and it can cause them real issues.

Although it doesn’t to the majority, there are people that react different than the majority as there are with any medication, legal or illegal.

Actually, research has shown that weed smoking in young people with a predisposition to schizophrenia can precipitate onset of the disease, particularly in young men. Well established fact.

@Bridget Smith not legal for teenagers

What do you mean?

Weed is no good for relatives of paranoid schizophrenics but aside from those cases, it's unlikely that weed did this. It could've been laced with bath salts, meth, crack, PCP or formeldahyde too.

It was schizophrenia. He had stopped taking any drugs a while ago.

Marijuana CAN cause psychosis. That's a fact

@@Ghost80 the damage was already done even though they said he stopped

The mother enabled his behavior. If he was so dangerous, then lock him up. Never leave him alone. No gun should be in their home. Make Ed family aware that they may be in danger. The overkill is not insanity. Its planned murder out of hatred.

he probably actually liked the coach, he has literal schizophrenia bro...

They insinuated at that point it was methamphetamine and/or other substances. I thought it was pretty clear he was thought to be detoxing off hard drugs. It was mentioned it began with weed not ended there.

That's not quite true, is it? When you are committed involuntary, you can't just leave whenever you like.

Utilizing the descriptor “crazy” only serves to propagate the stigma surrounding mental illness; which then leads to the continuous failure by society (writ-large) to itself suffer when people have disease/s of the ORGAN that is the brain, as Coach T. did. Please refrain from contributing (in ignorance) to an issue that needs compassion, not judgement. Lastly, pray that the 100 hundred BILLION neurons that are currently residing in your brain, and those you love, never malfunction. The most minuscule shift of them would put the aforesaid people in a very devastating position.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I was about to comment this when I seen your comment. Very flimsy gun cabinet. If anyone was to argue that they were locked up. Should not have been in the house.

The keys to the car also.

My husband has a crush on her

Exactly and he needs to stay in prison. I have a cousin him and his friend robbed a lady and she was killed. Idk who did it but they were both found guilty and he’s been in prison for over 20 years. He shouldn’t have been there in the first place. You do the crime do the time. Because who’s to say he won’t get out and murder someone else while having a psychotic episode

NGRI?

@@TariAkpodiete not guilty by reason of insanity

Agreed, so sad.

@@kco9189 > ah, thanks. i do prefer "guilty but insane" as a finding. it's much clearer, and also fairer, especially for victims.

Guilty but insane. Psychiatric prison for life.

I agree, however, hospitals for mental illness are not well funded. They are quick to medicate the person until they feel they are better and then release them. This is allowed even in murder cases. The problem with schizophrenia is that the person stops taking the medication when they are not closely watched. The schizophrenic distrusts all medication. This causes more psychosis and a repeat of the crime. As much as I would love all mentally ill people to be treated in the right place, unfortunately it’s safer for others sometimes to have them in prison. It’s a system problem that needs changing.

100% agree with you. He needs mental help that he will not receive in prison. It's very sad.

Yes, often the mental ill criminal is dumped on jail for them to cope with

It’s unbelievable the way we treat the mentally I’ll in this country. Everything’s about revenge… when 1/2 the blame goes on our system

@@MimiB1974 It’s not just your country. England is just as bad. A few years ago most mental health places were defunded. Personally, I think it’s a worldwide problem due to a huge lack of understanding about mental health issues.

*hugs* ❤

Yikes! I hope your son is in prison for life

Why wasn’t he on medication for schizophrenia? Why did his parents do nothing about his repeated episodes of psychosis? He’s completely out of touch with reality before he commits the crime, and his mother admitted that she was afraid of him, yet had no problem allowing him to be alone and able to and harm someone else,. She does not take any responsibility for the failure to adequately secure the guns in her home when she has someone who is a danger to others, she could have had him committed involuntarily but did she do that? I don’t hear that prior to the shooting she did anything about his mental illness. Only when he committed a crime was he able to get help-of course his family didn’t get him help. She’s quick to blame others as if everyone else is supposed to know more than she does about her son. This is ridiculous.

And if they let him out they can’t force him to take his meds. It’s a vicious cycle. Easy to have this take from afar. GOD forbid someone with mental illness inflict harm on your loved one. All of that reasoning is out of the window.

@@emmas1082 I agree

Feeling sorry for them and protecting society and two different things. We can still contain them and show compassion. But if left out on the streets, as they are in the cities, is not kindness and it benefits no one, including the children who witness their antics and the adults who are distressed by aberrant behavior.

I don't agree. Mental illness is not an excuse to kill. It was planned. He knew it was wrong, and he didn't care. Mental illness does not equal insanity. Paranoid schizophrenics should not be allowed in the community they are way too dangerous. Non Paranoid schizophrenics are OK. They are more likely to hurt themselves.

​@@junemarshall-kingsley566Totally agree with you. Paranoid schizophrenics should be in a locked facility for their own safety as well as the community.

right!!! I was like 🥴 huh, sir??!?

Oh dear god not the whole “I’m all better now” bit 🤦🏻‍♀️ it’s the equivalent to stopping insulin or albuterol 😩

stay away from her...

I’m sorry to hear that but I wouldn’t be around her

You are so right. I feel for everyone in this case, and do feel that Mark was let down by the mental health and judicial systems. Prosecutors are so focused on the goal of guilty that they refuse to recognize the obvious, untreated madness. May coach Rest In Peace. No winners here

I agree

why wasn't he on medication?

Mark's mother said it got worse and increased in intensity. The night before his parents did try to get help and was told to call back at 8:15. This was stated at the beginning. A week before the police arrested Mark and Mark was to be in the hospital's custody until that Friday but they released him without informing anyone including the police. Am I watching the same vid lol, a few people didn't catch all of this.

A week before, the night before is too late!! He had been having problems before that!! Even his own brother didn’t want him in his house and all the parents did was just move him back home with them. If the mom can’t even be alone with her OWN son because she’s not safe there is a SERIOUS problem!!! I’m not blaming the parents but I will say they waited a little bit too long to get him professional help

I also think that his mom was in denial and hoped he was detoxing from drugs and not mentally ill. She knew he was dangerous.