Crazed killer moved from state hospital for being too dangerous
Dec 5, 2012, 11:25 AM | Updated: 12:49 pm
State officials have moved killer Isaac Zamora from a mental hospital to prison because he's been deemed too dangerous. (AP image)
(AP image)
The gunman who killed six people including a sheriff’s deputy during a Skagit County shooting rampage in 2008 is being transferred from a state mental hospital to prison after officials determined he was too dangerous.
Isaac Zamora shot and killed Deputy Anne Jackson, Greg Gillum, Leroy Lange, Julie Binschus, Chester Rose and David Radcliffe during the shooting spree near the small town of Alger on Sept. 2, 2008. Four others were injured.
He pleaded guilty to four of the murders. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for the two others in an agreement with prosecutors that sent him to a mental hospital in prison.
The Department of Social and Health Services issued a news release Wednesday saying it was transferring a patient to prison because he “presents an unreasonable safety risk in a state hospital setting.”
While it wouldn’t name him because of privacy laws, the Department of Corrections has confirmed Zamora was the inmate transferred.
“In order to protect the safety of staff, patients and the public,” DSHS Secretary Robin Arnold-Williams said in a statement, “I had no choice but to ask DOC Secretary Bernie Warner to temporarily house this NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity) patient as a boarder in one of the secure Department of Corrections facilities.”
DSHS says Zamora remains in the legal custody of the agency and will continue to ensure he receives “appropriate treatment” under an agreement with DOC.
