Michael LaRosa, the 26-year-old charged with killing a Capitol Hill man with a hatchet on Nov. 22 (and suspected in the killing of a second man in the International District the day previous), is scheduled to appear in King County Superior Court later this morning to enter a plea in the Capitol Hill murder.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia about ten years ago, and in and out of Seattle's mental health court before the murder, LaRosa has now become part of the debate about the appropriate size of—and expectations for—our state's safety net. The basic contours of the comment conversation so far:

Goddamn Motherfucker. Fry his ass.
Posted by Deputy Fife on November 30, 2010 at 2:27 PM

Our so called criminal justice system seems very good at breaking down some pot head's door because he's growing two plants. Or murdering native wood carvers. But keeping truly dangerous people off the streets? Guess that's just too damn hard.
Posted by Don't you think he looks tired? on November 23, 2010 at 8:18 PM

very similar to the spontaneous murder 3 winters ago by schizophrenic in same area of capitol hill
Posted by i'm pro-science and i vote on November 29, 2010 at 7:25 PM

Good thing the state and county are cutting those expensive mental health programs they have.
Posted by nullbull on November 24, 2010 at 2:40 PM

If the government had chosen to take responsibility for mentally ill citizens like this before he became violent, an innocent man would not have had to die. This is not first time a mentally ill person has killed an innocent citizen and it will not be the last. When we deny health care to people like this, we put all citizens at risk.
Posted by DovS on November 26, 2010 at 11:08 AM

We don't have a social safety net in this country? What are Welfare, Foodstamps, Section 8, Medicaid, etc then?

And apart from institutionalization, what do you propose for the seriously mentally ill/hard core addicts? Community treatment has been a massive failure for everyone but the Feds, with cities, charities and prisons picking up the tab.
Posted by Anc on November 24, 2010 at 2:02 PM