Mental Worker Threatened With Knife
Officials on Wednesday confirmed that an outpatient last week briefly threatened a mental health care worker with a knife at a county facility.
The patient, who was not identified, was quickly disarmed by other staff members and no harm resulted, said Douglas Barton, deputy director of Orange County mental health.
Anaheim police later briefly took the man into custody. A police spokesman said the man was not charged with any crime and was released to other county mental health workers.
Barton said such threats of violence by patients are unusual. “I don’t want the public to have the idea that mentally ill patients are given to violence,” he said. “Most often the mentally ill are victims of crimes rather than perpetrators.”
He said the outpatient who pulled the knife was drunk. As a result of the Sept. 23 incident, “we’re having a review of our security system,” Barton said.
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