LEE COUNTY, Fla. — The man who police say attacked a woman at Publix on Wednesday said voices told him to go find someone at the store, but did not tell him to hurt anyone. A report says he was also recently under a Baker Act.
According to a police report obtained by Fox 4, Gabriel Solomon stabbed a random woman in the neck with a scissors and threw a wine bottle.
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price explain the gaps in the Baker Act process, according to an expert:
Mental health experts discuss the gaps in the Baker Act process and what can be done to prevent such situations.
"Not everyone who has mental illness concerns are violent, and so even people experience psychosis, not everybody who experiences symptoms of psychosis is violent," says Ariella Van Hara who is a Clinical Assistant professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.
She read from the police report that Gabriel Solomon attacked a woman at Publix.
He claims he heard voices, but they did not tell him to hurt anyone.
"It sounds like the command was to go to Publix and find somebody," Van Hara said. "But it wasn't necessarily a commanding and nature of like you need to harm this person."
Van Hara noted gaps in the Baker Act process, including legal interpretations.
"Time constraints about how much time you have to work with an individual to the court proceeding process to extend the Baker Act petition," Van Hara said. "And that can be, either approved or denied by the magistrate slash judge, right? Who's ever signing off on that order? And so there, there's a lot of loose ends, and that piece of it, but the Baker Act allows you at least up to that 72-hour timepiece, so you can at least start the medication process."
Van Hara suggests using mobile crisis teams or crisis intervention officers for prevention.
"If you need additional support, they have the training and mental health, even the co-responder models, having the licensed mental health professional go out with law enforcement, and then bringing them to a professional, right, if they're willing to go and seek psychiatric help," Van Hara said.
ORIGINAL STORY:
When police got to the Publix on Lee Boulevard, they found Solomon near the front of the store and put him in handcuffs. He told police, according to the report, that he has voices and thoughts in his head.
On that night, he said they told him to go find someone shopping at Publix, but did not say to hurt anyone.
The report says he took scissors from his house and walked to Publix, which Solomon said he had been to many times.
Solomon said he found a 62-year-old woman next to him in an aisle and followed her around.
Police say he eventually stabbed her in the neck with the scissors and threw a liquor bottle at her that he grabbed from the shelf. It missed the woman, and police say a good Samaritan grabbed Solomon and tackled him to the ground.
“The voices in Solomon’s head did not tell him to hurt [the victim], but he wanted to do it,” the report said.
Solomon said committing the acts felt good, he felt like an animal and needs something to calm himself down.
Investigators say they later found the scissors and wine bottle sitting on top of a trash bin in the deli section.
Police say the victim was in such a traumatized state that she was unable to think for herself when officers tried to speak with her. She was sent to the hospital for her injuries.
Before officers left the scene, they were flagged down by Solomon’s father.
He told police Solomon had been recently under Baker Act and that he would benefit from mental health. However, according to the report, Solomon has never had mental health issues nor behavioral issues until he started living with his mother, his father told police.
Solomon had been living with his mother in Arcadia for two years and made friends in the wrong crowd and became not compliant, the report said.
When that happened, his father said Solomon went back to live with him.
Solomon is charged with attempted second-degree murder.
