Bestselling Author and Mental Health Advocate
I had planned to write today about my trip out of the snow-bound Washington D.C. area to Los Angeles where I toured Skid Row and the Twin Towers, which is the nickname for the city jail. As many of you know, the jail is the largest public mental institution in the U.S.
However, I decided to wait until Monday to post that account because of the police shooting here in Fairfax, Va. that put Ian Smith, a person with mental illness, into the hospital in critical condition.
Tom Jackman has written a follow-up story about the shooting of Ian Smith in Herndon. You can read here.
Even though I normally don’t write on Thursdays and am out of town, I wanted to post it.
It is important for our community to get a full explanation about what happened the night Ian was shot. We need to know so that we can, hopefully, prevent future shootings. Obviously, my heart goes out to the entire Smith family. This is horrible. It is every family’s nightmare – calling for help and ending up having a loved one shot. The family is hurting and demanding answers. I am praying that Ian recovers. Please join me.
According to Jackman’s story, Major Tom Ryan was at the scene. While I have no inside knowledge about what happened that night, I can tell you that there is no one on the Fairfax County Police Department who has worked harder for persons with mental illness than Major Ryan. He is personally responsible for getting CIT training here. He has been its biggest booster. He cares about persons with mental illness.
And that makes this shooting incident especially tragic.
My heart goes out to the Smith family. My heart also goes out to Tom Ryan. This is a sad day for our entire Northern Virginia mental health community.
Let’s hope Ian recovers.
The last several days have been odd. I had a discouraging telephone call with my long- time editor during which he told me that the only nonfiction books that have been selling lately are partisan political attacks on the opposition or memoirs. He rejected a fabulous true crime idea that I had proposed and said “no” when I mentioned a possible book about a spy. He already had rejected a book that I wanted to write about homelessness and one that I had proposed about successful programs that are helping persons with mental illnesses.
As you can imagine, since all of my books have been about true crime, spies, or mental illness, it was a depressing conversation that left me wondering if I should have taken my mother’s advice and stuck around at the Washington Post .
And then —
Pete Earley is the bestselling author of such books as The Hot House and Crazy. When he is not spending time with his family, he tours the globe advocating for mental health reform.
As a former reporter for The Washington Post, Pete uses his journalistic background to take a fair-minded approach to the story all while weaving an interesting tale for the reader.