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No problems for years, then a fatal dispute Man killed by police had gone off medication By Chris Bristol CENTRAL POINT � For seven years, Mark LeRoy Vincent did just fine. Since his release from the Oregon State Hospital in 1993, where he was locked up in 1990 for trying to kill sheriff�s deputies and setting fire to his parents� home, the 39-year-old Central Point man stayed out of trouble. More important, he stayed on his medication. But sometime earlier this year, the mentally ill Vincent apparently stopped taking the prescription drugs that kept his paranoid schizophrenia in check. Before long, the visions and coded messages that deluded his judgment gradually began to return. "I think that�s the key, is when he�s on his medication," Jackson County Sheriff�s Lt. Dewey Patten said. "And when he gets off, things go downhill." Vincent�s futile quest for peace of mind ended violently Monday in the same place where it began more than 10 years ago � his parents� home. He threatened sheriff�s deputies Charles Retzer, 34, and James Biddle, 30, with a hunting knife and was shot to death. His father was seriously wounded in the confrontation. It was the second fatal shooting involving a mentally ill man in the Rogue Valley in less than a year. On Dec. 28, Medford police killed 25-year-old Cole Smith during a standoff at the Oregon State Police station in Central Point. Although unarmed, Smith had repeatedly threatened to kill officers and brandished a razor case that police mistook in the dark for a weapon. Retzer and Biddle were trying to detain Vincent on a warrant for a mental hold, issued late last week by an alarmed psychiatrist. On Thursday, county medical director Lisa Bailey interviewed Vincent and determined that he needed immediate hospitalization, according to Hank Collins, Health and Human Services director. Family members indicated Vincent had not been taking required medications. "He was escalating and escalating," Collins said. "It was real clear." Bailey quickly issued a director�s hold, a mental health detainer authorizing law enforcement personnel to pick up Vincent. The doors at the mental health department on East Main Street are not locked during business hours, however, and Vincent slipped out the back before deputies arrived. "We�re not a secure facility," Collins said. "We do not have the wherewithal to tackle people. That�s what law enforcement is for." Deputies were unable to locate Vincent until family members reported Monday that he was home. That�s when the deputies went to the house at 2908 Willow Springs Road. That led to Monday�s confrontation. Patten said the deputies shot the 6-foot-3, 320-pound man "multiple times" after they were unable to subdue him with an electronic taser and he grabbed a knife, which had a five-inch blade. Both deputies were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a review by a grand jury, Patten said. A prosecutor who was at the scene Monday night called the shooting an apparent case of self-defense. A third deputy who accompanied Retzer and Biddle remains on active duty. Patten said Deputy Jeffrey McGrath, 29, was guarding the back door in case Vincent tried to flee and was not involved in the shooting. Patten declined to say how many times Vincent was shot or how many shots were fired, pending the grand jury�s review of the case. An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday night. Vincent�s father, 77-year-old Wayne Vincent, was accidentally shot once in the right wrist during the confrontation and was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center. A spokesman for the hospital said the elder Vincent�s condition has been upgraded from critical to serious. In 1990, Mark Vincent was found guilty but insane and sentenced to 20 years in the custody of the state Psychiatric Security Review Board after he took as many as 20 shots at deputies when they tried to detain him on a court-ordered mental hold. The incident ended after Vincent set fire to his parents� home and was forced to surrender when he ran out of ammunition. But he was released from the state hospital in Salem after 3� years, then was discharged for good in 1997 � meaning he was a free man and could not be forced back into treatment for an extended stay without his cooperation. Mary Claire Buckley, executive director of the psychiatric board in Portland, said she heard Vincent had been having problems. "Oh no!" she cried Tuesday, upon learning that Vincent had been killed. "What a tragedy," she said. "I can�t imagine what his parents are going through. They tried so hard." According to Buckley, Vincent did well in forced residential treatment at the state hospital and was given a conditional release in 1993 under an agreement with the Jackson County Mental Health Department. The psychiatric board has jurisdiction over mentally ill people who are found guilty of violent crimes but insane. The board has the power to reduce sentences imposed by the courts if patients have recovered or are deemed no longer a threat to themselves or others. Buckley said Vincent was discharged in August 1997 after his case manager in Medford testified that he continued to flourish on his own in Jackson County. "He did very well for four years in the community and had no problems whatsoever," she said. "He was stable. He was medication-compliant. He was having no difficulties." But earlier this year, Vincent apparently began to regress. First in March and again in September, deputies detained Vincent on mental-hold warrants as his mental illness began to spiral out of control. Patten said he personally helped detain Vincent in March, waiting several hours for him to exit the house to move his pickup truck. "There was enough of us that we just kind of overwhelmed him there," he recalled. Mental-health holds happen �almost every day� By Jonel Aleccia When Jackson County psychiatrist Lisa Bailey placed a mental health detainer on Mark LeRoy Vincent Thursday, she had little reason to suspect it would end in the death of the 39-year-old paranoid schizophrenic. Despite Vincent�s history of violence, which included a 1990 attempt to shoot police, the Central Point man had not been in any significant trouble in more than a decade. Besides, county officials routinely issue "director�s holds" authorizing law enforcement officers to apprehend mentally ill people whose conditions worsen. Last year, 327 such holds were issued for people determined to be a danger to themselves or others, or those thought to be unfit to care for themselves. Most were enacted without incident, said Hank Collins, county director of Health and Human Services. "We do it almost every day," Collins said. "We�re really fortunate that we don�t have more incidents like this. Of course, any time we do, it�s horrible." The county caseload of 5,000 mental health clients includes a few hundred who are diagnosed as schizophrenics, said Mental Health Director Ron Gardner. Of those, several dozen may be diagnosed, like Vincent, as paranoid schizophrenics. Schizophrenia is a neuro-biochemical brain disorder that occurs in 1 out of 100 people, or 1 percent of the population. Ranging in severity from mild to extreme, schizophrenia affects thought processes, stripping sufferers of the ability to rationally evaluate reality. Paranoid schizophrenia is a subtype characterized by auditory hallucinations and delusional thoughts about persecution or conspiracy. Anti-psychotic medications and regular monitoring appear to be the most successful treatments for the disorder, according to www.drkoop.com, a medical Web site. But when patients resist treatments, refusing to take medications or to seek counseling, they can quickly descend into psychosis. That�s when many mental health detainers are issued, Gardner said. "Sometimes you get information from friends, relatives or the community. You�re worried about the person hurting themselves or others," he said. When deputies show up, most patients are compliant. But a few, like Vincent, are combative. "They�re scared as well as scary," Gardner said. "It�s a big responsibility to take away a person�s rights, to tell the police to go pick them up and put them in a secure facility." Vincent�s violent history made officials more cautious, but no one anticipated the incident would end as it did, Collins said. Vincent was the brother of a worker in the Jackson County Sheriff�s Department. "One of the officers who went volunteered because he knew Mark and knew his history," Collins said. "The people who entered the situation knew who they were dealing with. "It�s a real tragedy." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.