Parents of mentally ill child may have averted mass shooting

By Seth Doane

CBS News) BOLIVAR, Mo. - The Colorado theater shooting and the massacre at Sandy Hook school have raised urgent questions about the failings of mental health care. Parents are up against many barriers when they try to help a mentally ill child who's prone to violence.

Two years ago, Bill Lammers' son, Blaec, was picked up by police at a local Walmart, in Bolivar, Missouri, holding a butcher knife and a Halloween mask.

"What he told us was he had picked out someone," said Bill. "He was going to watch them go into the back room, follow them back there, and hopefully the police would get him and shoot him first before he did anything."

He was 18 then and already had been committed to a mental hospital twice -- once for threatening to put a pipe bomb under his teacher's car.

Blaec would be checked into mental hospitals, but could only stay for 4 days.

"That was our question too," said Lammers. "'Why? Why? Did you fix him? Did you cure him?'"

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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57587678/parents-of-mentally-ill-child-may-have-averted-mass-shooting/