PUNTA GORDA, Fla — The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said the family of the shooter who killed Sergeant Elio Diaz knew all about his history with mental health struggles, and investigators are piecing together how that history could have led to the death of Diaz.
Long before the violence in the Punta Gorda gas station parking lot devastated the Charlotte County community, Sheriff Bill Prummell said Andrew Moisten Junior’s family knew he had mental heath issues and was using drugs.
Watch Austin's report here...
“People need to take some sort of responsibility. Family, friends - they believe he’s got a mental health issue. They know he’s taking drugs. But they sat on their a** and did absolutely nothing,” said Prummell at Thursday’s press conference.
Fox 4’s Austin Schargorodski wanted a mental health expert to respond to that, so he spoke with Ariella VanHara, a Clinical Professor of Social Work at FGCU.
The Sheriff said Moisten had recently spent time at a mental health facility in Georgia. But he also had hallucinogenic mushrooms in his vehicle.
“If someone has a predisposition to a mental health condition and then we go and fuel it with mind altering substances like hallucinogens it might increase paranoia that may have been there or not been there but the substance brings that piece out,” VanHara explained.
So could a dislike of law enforcement, which Sheriff Prummell says Mostyn had.
“For this individual, if it’s a specific trauma geared toward law enforcement, there might be some distrust or fear about lack of protection from the law enforcement agency,” said VanHara.
But as far as the Sheriff is concerned, this is the bottom line. His family knew he had issues - and weapons - and Sergeant Diaz’s death was the result of them doing nothing.
