Rita B. Loncharich, a 65-year-old grandmother, decided to walk into the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on the Monday before Christmas to shop for a present.
She hadn’t gotten very far into the store when 40-year-old Antonio Moore came up behind her, pulled a knife, and stabbed her in the back.
“I’ve been stabbed,” Moore told police he heard Rita say. Moore told police that a “fight or flight” response overtook him, and he stabbed the victim, according to a report from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department.
Moore, who lived in Alabama, traveled by bus to Palm Beach Gardens the previous week before the attack. “Moore told officers he had gone into the Barnes & Noble store that evening with his red and blue bags and was charging his phone when he suddenly retrieved a fixed-blade knife from his jacket pocket and stabbed Loncharich,” reports USA Today. Moore also told police he had never seen the victim and had never had any interactions with her.
“It’s terrible that anybody can’t walk into a regular store without being fearful of being stabbed,” said David from Jupiter Farms.
Another customer said, “My heart goes up to the family affected and, you know, the community itself I never really thought about this type of situation happening.”
Of course, no one thinks of something like this happening. This isn’t Mogadishu or some third-world hellhole. This is suburban America. How often are mentally ill people involved in homicides?
Research suggests that individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are responsible for approximately 10% of all homicides in the United States. The percentage is significantly higher for mass homicide events, where approximately 33% of perpetrators are estimated to have a serious mental illness.
In 2022, the CDC recorded approximately 22,395 homicides. Using the 10% estimate, roughly 2,240 of these could be attributed to severe mental illness.
And that’s just the homicides.
What are these people doing walking around, free to kill and maim? The destruction of lives, of families, need not happen in a civilized society that’s supposed to have compassion for the mentally ill while protecting the rest of us from their depradations.
It’s the “system” we’re told. If true, then fix the damn system. That’s what we have a Congress for. Court decisions have also contributed to the epidemic of crime by mentally ill people, in that it has become nearly impossible to institutionalize someone.
Look, I’m not naïve, nor am I unaware of the many complex issues associated with putting people in institutions that are essentially nightmares of inadequate care. Medicines can help a mentally ill person, but what if they refuse to take the drugs? The courts say they can’t be forced to take drugs that would make them less of a danger to others, nor can they be forced into housing against their will.
Mentally ill people have rights. So do the rest of us. We have a right to be free from the fear that we can be attacked by someone who should not be walking the streets. The bar for institutionalizing a mentally ill person has become far too high.
Yes, we need more facilities for the mentally ill. Not warehouses, but more group homes where patients can be monitored to be sure they are medicated and socialized.
Approximately 20% to 25% of the total homeless population in the U.S. has a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In 2024, this represented roughly 137,000 to 170,000 individuals.
When including broader conditions like major depression or anxiety, the estimate rises to about 45% of the total homeless population.
There’s no one solution for the mental health crisis. But we’re not even looking at this problem as a national problem. The crisis begs for leadership.
Who will step forward?
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