Shooting Stirs a Furor Over Policies in Georgia

A shooting spree by a former mental patient in which one person was killed and four wounded touched off a furor Wednesday in Georgia over mental health policy and gun control.

James Calvin Brady, the suspect in the Tuesday shootings at a suburban shopping mall, had in his pocket a form saying he was released Monday from a state mental hospital where he was treated for showing homicidal tendencies.

The question of why he was released after only 10 days of treatment reverberated on radio talk shows, in the subway and on the streets Wednesday.

State officials say they were only following criteria for such releases. “There are fairly rigid constraints” on holding patients against their will, said John Watson, deputy superintendent of the Georgia Regional Hospital, where Brady was held.

Overcrowding was not a problem at the hospital, officials said, implying that Brady was released because he was judged to be no longer a threat to himself or others.

Brady was back in a state mental institution Wednesday, after De Kalb County jail officials determined they could not care for him properly. He was taken to Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Ga., for evaluation. Authorities said they still expect him to stand trial in the shootings.

Jim Ledbetter, commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources, said Georgia’s eight mental hospitals treat 20,000 patients a year, almost 80% of whom are involuntary patients like Brady. He said the shooting was the first such incident he recalls involving a former mental patient.

Nevertheless, he said, a routine investigation will be conducted to make sure the release was made “in accordance with established medical practice.”

Brady bought a handgun just hours after his release from the hospital, renewing the debate in Georgia over handgun control. To purchase the weapon, Brady merely had to show a driver’s license and sign a form declaring, among other assertions, that he was not mentally ill. There is no waiting period on gun purchases in Georgia.

Gov. Joe Frank Harris conceded that the shootings make “a very strong statement” about the need for gun control, but he asserted: “I’m not sure any gun control law could prevent something like this happening.”

Brady is black, repeatedly identified in television reports as “a well-dressed black man.”

“He only shot white people,” said one of many angry callers to a local radio talk show Wednesday. Hospital and De Kalb County police officials said all the victims were white, but police made no racial links in the shootings.