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 Linda Thomas
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CafeRacer.jpg
A mourner pays respect to the Cafe Racer shooting victims, May 30, 2012. Ian Stawicki killed five people in Seattle before turning the gun on himself that day. His father supports legislation that prevents mentally ill people from getting their hands on guns. (Robert Sorbo photo)

Guns and mental illness, an '800 pound fish on a two ounce line'

January 15, 2013 @ 5:18 pm (Updated: 9:56 am - 1/16/13 )

Walter's son was smart, but struggled in school.

"He had a lot of learning disabilities. He'd come home crying," Walt recalls.

Whether it was because classmates picked on him in school, older kids pushed him around on the bus, or a teacher labeling him "stupid," Ian seemed to have a lot of reasons to be upset.

"Before high school, 7th or 8th grade in a south end school, he came home just bawling his head off one day. I grappled with him, took him to the floor and had my wife call the police," he says. "About a half hour later he started calming down. We never found out what that was about."

As he got older, Walt suspected his son probably had some kind of mental illness.

"He was for the most part sane, but when he wasn't he certainly wasn't," he says.

Walt and his wife were never afraid of Ian.

If he started saying things most of us would consider bizarre, they always managed to calm their son down.

"His mother and I would say, 'No, no, no, that's not how you talk about people' and he would stop. He would pull himself together.

Walt tried to get counseling services for his son as he approached his 20s and then 30s. He always thought he'd have more time to get him professional help.

Time ran out May 30, 2012 at 10:57 a.m.

"9-1-1 what are you reporting?"

"I'm at Roosevelt and 59th at Cafe Racer, there's been a shooting. Somebody came in and shot a bunch of people. I'm hiding in the bathroom."

"Hold on sir."

"We need help right away."

Walt Stawicki got a phone call from his wife.

"She said, 'Get down here' I just saw our son on TV,' Stawicki says as he relives the moment and lets out a heavy sigh. "'What happened?' 'He shot people.''

Ian Stawicki took the lives of four people near the University District and one woman in downtown Seattle. Then, surrounded by police in West Seattle, he killed himself.

Walt's struggle to guide, control, and help his son for 40 years was like handling an "800 pound fish on a two ounce line."

The line snapped.

"I don't want to do another sob story about me and my experience," he says. "I want to talk about what we can do. That's what keeps me floating is that there's something more and I don't have time to feel sorry for myself and retire and hide."

What would have helped Ian Stawicki and prevented the murders of five people in Seattle last May?

Walt Stawicki thinks the national "grand standing" about gun control and banning weapons makes people feel as though something is being accomplished.

Despite Ian Stawicki's mental instability, he had no problem getting his hands on weapons.

"He had a concealed-carry permit. He, like myself, could walk into a store say, 'I want that one,' lay the money down, show the permit and walk out with that pistol," says Stawicki.

He supports New York's legislation which requires mental health counselors to report when someone makes a credible threat involving weapons.

There is a flaw with the new law, he says. It assumes there is a solid system in place to handle the mentally ill. That's not the case, in his experience.

"We need to have assisted outpatient treatment with a court mandate that has a hammer that can drop," he says. "You can either obey and live your life out there, or you can be locked up until you come around and understand what's going on."

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (44)


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  • Rainwaves wrote...
    Mental institutions
    January 16, 2013 12:49 pm
    In the 1960s and 1970s there was a war on the mental institutions. Many state institutions were compared to prisons and demonized. My grandfather worked as a pharmacist on one of the largest compounds in NY until it was closed. While the patients were there (many of them committed by family members) they had jobs. Some worked on the farm, others did laundry or cleaned rooms, many worked with sewing. These individuals were given a purpose to their other wise unhappy lives. When the hospitals and institutions closed, and legislation made it difficult to commit someone, many of these people became homeless or sent back to their families. Crimes by mentally ill people started to climb in the 70s and we are just beginning to see what closing those places have done to our society. These people no longer have a place/purpose and are unhappy, so they take it out on others, not just by gun usage but by knives,bats and violence in general. It is time to reopen institutions and make it easier to commit someone. That is what the mother of the Sandy Hook shooter was trying to do, but the legislative process to commit is so long and difficult, that he had time to realize that is what was going on and he reacted.
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  • maplefish wrote...
    Rainwaves
    January 16, 2013 7:32 pm
    Thank you for your honest & accurate post. This is exactly what the knee-jerk, over reactive, idiots on the left reuse to recognize or admit. They simply want to place blame on guns. Guns are evil and anyone with a gun is an evil criminal. Throw the facts out the window and overreact like the mindless, ill-informed sheep that they are....Pathetic!
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  • Get Real wrote...
    Let's be real here..........no one wants to pay for it!
    January 16, 2013 1:15 pm
    Yes, the source of these tragic events is unstable people who put innocent people in society at risk. But, I think that America does not want to pay for it, as the money does not turn a direct profit for anyone. It is a socialistic concept to provide $$$$ to help these folks get off the street as many of the street folks are mentally ill as well. Perhaps jail funds could be redirected to such a noble cause, what a joke some of your comments are, buffoons!
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  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Construct a town in eastern Washington.
    January 16, 2013 2:41 pm
    G.P.S anklets = no leaving.
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  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Construct a town in eastern Washington.
    January 16, 2013 2:43 pm
    For Violent Criminals ..ankle bracelets G.P.S = no leaving.PERIOD.
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  • Saltchucker wrote...
    Why eastern Washington?
    January 16, 2013 3:16 pm
    Send 'em to Canada....or Australia. Reinvent Bedlam while you're at it. Will Kurt Russell still be around to rescue the president when his plane crashes into your new town? Oh, wait that was Escape from New York.....I know I'm being silly, but sane people decided how to fix crazy people using pseudo-science is, well...kinda silly too. Perhaps some day the pseudo-science will become real science, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
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  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Now that we have the technology
    January 16, 2013 5:14 pm
    Make a town in eastern Washington for criminals............Then make a town for the mentally ill ,all monitored by G.P.S.
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  • ratrustle wrote...
    One guy has it right
    January 16, 2013 3:21 pm
    So why won't Obama listen to rational thinking like this? Walt Stawicki obviously gets it. The far left see this as an opportunity not to waste. What a friggin legacy...
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  • pechenya wrote...
    mentally ill AND responsible gun owner
    January 16, 2013 11:58 pm
    I've struggled with mental illness most of my life. A very traumatic event from my childhood changed my life forever. I take prescription medicine on a daily basis so I can manage my compulsions, feelings and reactions to everyday life. Some days are easy, some are very hard. However, even on a bad day, I still know right from wrong. I have owned a Glock for the past 10 years. I understand that it can be used to harm or kill another living thing. I know it is wrong to ever point the gun at someone in jest and that when I'm not using the gun at the gun range, it belongs locked up, in a locked box, high away and hidden from my children. To say that all mentally ill people should be kept from owning a gun (or other weapons for that matter) is wrong. Not all mentally ill people are a threat to society. There has to be a better way to gauge someones mental competency than just assuming that every mentally ill gun owner will eventually harm others. I have tremendous empathy for those people who lost loved ones in these tragic shootings. But I also feel that as long as I demonstrate responsible gun ownership, I should be allowed to keep my gun.
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