

Although people are constitutionally entitled to be found competent to stand trial, the U.S. They’ve also caused the public to question the fairness and necessity of laws that say not everyone is equally culpable for criminal acts.įor more than two centuries, state legislatures across the United States have generally supported the idea that individuals with certain degrees of mental illness cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions and should be directed toward medical support, not incarceration. People such as John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan Lorena Bobbitt, who cut off her husband’s penis after she says he sexually assaulted her and the Aurora theater shooter, who unsuccessfully asserted insanity, have generated media frenzies. A nearly seven-hour standoff ended with him on the kitchen floor, tased and handcuffed.Īmericans are familiar with-and often fascinated by-cases in which alleged perpetrators have pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). As SWAT moved in-using explosives to breach the apartment and firing foam baton rounds-Hoffschneider picked up two knives for protection. A silver Winchester rifle was still inside, though Varela had unloaded it, dropping the ammo into his pocket. after grabbing Hoffschneider’s 9 mm pistol. One woman was struck in her thigh the other suffered a wound to her torso, where the slug lodged near her spine.Ĭonvinced that the responding law enforcement officers were cartel members in disguise, Hoffschneider fired at least five additional shots over the next hour as Lakewood police surrounded the apartment. But ambulances also had to be summoned: Two of Hoffschneider’s neighbors had been hit by the bullets. The gunfire had drawn the building’s other residents outside, and they had called the police, as Hoffschneider had hoped. Varela jolted awake to find a blank look on his son’s face and a ricocheted bullet hole in the front door.

He thought the noise might make his neighbors call the police, who could, he believed, protect him from the cartel. It was past midnight when Hoffschneider says he fired a “warning shot” toward the apartment’s wall. He loaded two guns and hid them out of his father’s sight. Hoffschneider’s mind was betraying him with false visions, but the fear was real. “They are going to get you.” Panicked, he asked his father to patrol the area around their home. He looked out and thought he saw one of the children’s mothers telling him that a drug cartel was after him. Once inside, he saw someone run by the window. As he approached his father’s garden-level apartment in Lakewood, he saw some neighbor kids playing outside. Hoffschneider had never experienced delusions before, but his paranoia grew more intense after he left the hospital. The next day, on the afternoon of July 9, he was discharged, without a psychiatric evaluation, into his father’s care. As the drugs wore off on July 8, he grew increasingly apprehensive about the nursing staff and tried to escape. His medical records indicate that on July 5 he developed agitated delirium-a state of fear, panic, and hyperactivity that can lead to respiratory arrest-and required sedation. Anthony, Hoffschneider was intubated and administered more than a dozen medications. How Denver Film Worked to Add Diverse Films to Its Annual FestivalĪt St.How Tad Boyle Has Made CU Men’s Basketball Into a Powerhouse.Inside Denver’s New $80,000 Sneaker Store.Jessica Watkins Could Be the First Woman and Person of Color on the Moon.Vail Employees Really Should Wear Tuxedos.What to Order at La Rola Urban Colombian Food Inside Zeppelin Station.

