(5-4-18) Not a May passes when I don’t recall the deaths of Fairfax County Police Officers Vicky O. Armel and Michael Garbarino who were ambushed by a mentally troubled young man armed with an AK-47 during an attack May 8th, 2006 at a police station near my home. They were reportedly the first Fairfax Police officers killed in the department’s history. After their deaths, I wrote a tribute to Detective Armel published in The Washington Post because of how kind she had been to my son, Kevin, when he first was arrested.
This was long before Crisis Intervention Team training became a priority in Fairfax, yet she had a big heart and was a devoted Christian who became a police officer to serve and protect, but also to help those in need. A taped message that she had made was played at her funeral during which she spoke about her decision to dedicate her life to Jesus Christ. She was a wife and mother of two. Her killer had fled from a mental facility. Officer Garbarino had been a police officer 23 years and also was survived by his spouse and two children. His widow, Suzanne, later lashed out at the father of the 18 year-old shooter who was convicted of two federal gun charges and heavily criticized for allowing his disturbed son access to a military style weapon.
What strikes me about my original tribute in the Post is how the figures that I cited have not decreased but increased from 700,000 persons with mental illnesses being arrested each year to 2.2 million being booked into jail today.
But the legacy that Detective Armel left behind is what I will always remember most. She treated my son with kindness setting an example for other Fairfax Officers to follow today through CIT training. The irony and horror that she was later murdered by someone with mental illness can not be forgotten. Along with Officer Garbarino, she will be remembered.
In a time when police officers often are criticized for their handling of individuals who are mentally ill, it is important to remember the Vicky Armels in law enforcement.
Thank You, Detective Vicky Armel Took Up for My Son When the System Wouldn’t
Fairfax County Police Detective Vicky O. Armel, who was murdered Monday during a shooting rampage by a troubled teenager, had helped people with severe mental illnesses. I know because she helped my son.
Four years ago, I rushed my college-age son to a Fairfax Hospital emergency room only to be turned away. Although Kevin was delusional and had been hospitalized twice before for treatment of bipolar disorder, a doctor said he was not sick enough — yet.
Kevin thought pills were poison, and Virginia’s restrictive commitment statutes prohibit doctors from treating a person with a mental illness against his will unless he poses an “imminent danger” to himself or others. I was told to bring my son back after he hurt himself or me.
Forty-eight hours later, Kevin broke into a stranger’s house to take a bubble bath. The homeowners, who were away for the weekend, pressed charges, and Detective Armel was assigned to the case. 
Because I had been rebuffed at the hospital, I was outraged that my son was now being punished for a crime that easily could have been prevented. Detective Armel sympathized. She personally took my son through booking and arranged for Kevin to be released without being held in jail.
Later, when his case came before a judge, the owners of the house that he had vandalized objected to a plea bargain that our attorney had negotiated with prosecutors. The state had been willing to let Kevin plead guilty to two misdemeanors as long as he remained in treatment. But the victims wanted him to plead guilty to at least one felony, which would have marked him for life. Once again, Detective Armel came to our aid. She persuaded the homeowners to give us time to come up with an alternative sentence.
This is why jails and prisons have become our new asylums.The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that 300,000 inmates in jails and prisons take medications for severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. An additional 500,000 are on probation. Some 700,000 pass through the criminal court system each year. The largest mental facility in America is not a hospital; it is the Los Angeles County jail.
Data from the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center confirm this week’s grisly headline. People with mental illnesses kill law enforcement officers at a rate 5.5 times greater than the rest of the population. People with severe disorders are also killed by police in justifiable homicides at a rate nearly four times higher than others.Like the heart, brains can become sick. Eighty percent of mental illnesses can be successfully treated. There was no family history, no inkling of what was ahead in my son’s case. He did nothing to become mentally ill. Detective Armel and I discussed this.When I heard a female detective had been murdered Monday, I thought about my friend. We’d kept in touch. News reports the next morning confirmed my fear.A good police officer, loving wife and mother of two children is dead. Her murder was preventable. Her killer should have gotten treatment.
Their deaths should serve as a wake-up call.How many more police officers will be murdered; how many young men and women with untreated mental disorders must die, before we reform a disgraceful mental health system that fails to treat the sick and protect the innocent?
About the author: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.
