Investigators are out on May 21 during a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting at the Buffalo supermarket. (Joshua Bessex / AP)
According to Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, the 18-year-old white man who opened fire on a Buffalo supermarket, killing 10 and injuring three, was first known to authorities in 2021 after a widespread threat while attending high school.
New York State police took the suspect to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after he made a threat and worked on a school project that mentioned murder-suicide. But authorities released him after a day and a half after determining that his threat was not specific enough to warrant further action, investigators said earlier. This allowed him to legally buy the AR-15 style weapon he used in the attack.
The case of the Buffalo suspect – who pleaded not guilty to 25 counts – exemplifies how high-risk teens, without treatment or control, can fall through the cracks of the system that seeks to disrupt potentially violent behavior. , which allows these young people to commit deadly acts of violence, several experts tell CNN.
Experts who research and develop approaches to the long-term treatment of troubled teens say they seek intensive services over a long period of time from mental health, community, and law enforcement agencies.
High-risk teens are characterized by antisocial disorders, social withdrawal, depressed mood, and lack of empathy or remorse, according to a National Police Institute report released earlier this year on teen management. ‘high risk in community contexts. Those who radicalize by extremist groups or harbor dangerous racist views, experts say, need a more complex treatment plan that seeks to address the underlying causes of their ideology and completely rethink their mindset.
The role of the police in the treatment of high-risk adolescents is to respond to an articulated or imminent threat of danger, detention or transportation to a psychiatric or crisis center for an assessment, according to Frank Straub, director of the National Policing Institute. NPI) Center for the Prevention of Violence.
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