Roswell, Georgia police officers warned 15-year-old Jeffrey Hazelwood—a diagnosed schizophrenic with a lifelong history of severe behavioral issues—about the dangers of playing with his grandparents’ weapons. The weapons included knives, guns and a sword, all stored in the grandparent’s gun safe.
Police in the affluent Atlanta suburb gave Hazelwood this warning during one of eight visits to the house that Hazelwood lived in with his grandparents. This time, Hazelwood frightened a neighbor by wielding the sword and throwing knives into trees in the front yard. The neighbor told police:
...the juvenile was deadly and he didn't want him around his house. He said he'd had several previous incidents with Jeffrey Hazelwood. He requested that Jeffrey Hazelwood be issued a criminal trespass warning not to enter his property.
Officers issued the warning and:
Officers warned Hazelwood of the dangers of playing with weapons and advised him to do so in the back yard of the home under the supervision of his [grandparents].
Less than five years later, on August 1, 2016—and just a few minutes away from that back yard—in what appears to be a random attack, 20-year-old Hazelwood allegedly shot and killed two 17-year-old students with a gun that he stole from his grandparent’s gun safe.
A horror movie come true
Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis were about to start their senior years in high school.
During a secret late night rendezvous, they made out in a car parked behind a Publix supermarket. They likely felt safely hidden from view in the dark of night in the sleepy, quiet suburb.
But Hazelwood was driving his car at that late hour, with a gun that he stole from his grandfather’s gun safe—again. Per Hazelwood’s confession, he happened to see the teens’ two cars go behind the Publix. Curious, he followed. He climbed onto the supermarket’s roof where, for 20 minutes, he watched the teens make out in a back seat.
Hazelwood then approached the car and opened the back door. He pistol whipped Davis and shot him in the head once. Then, he assaulted Henderson and shot her in the head once. He left their bodies on the ground, posed and with a feather in Henderson’s hair.
Hazelwood stole Henderson’s bank card and, wearing a V for Vendetta mask, drove to a gas station and filled his tank using the stolen card, still wearing the mask. Then, he returned to the scene of the crime and stole jumper cables out of Davis’ car. He wanted the cables in case he had future problems with his car.
To the credit of Roswell police, they kept the details quiet, the community as calm as could be expected, and captured Hazelwood two days later. I’m grateful for that. I live minutes away from where this happened. And I shudder to think what Hazelwood may have done next if he wasn’t captured. His actions and behavior were sociopathic.
How many more times do we have to hear the same red flags?
Many say Hazelwood was frightening, strange or a loner. That he didn’t fit in. He led a troubled life marred by severe behavior problems and disobedience.
One student's parent recalls that in elementary school, Hazelwood was often in trouble for doing things like stabbing students with a sharpened pencil. Another says Hazelwood used to kill birds with a sling shot. And a teenage girl says that if she was outside when Hazelwood drove by, he would always slow down and stare at her in a way that made her uncomfortable.
An anonymous friend says:
...Hazelwood was in special education in elementary school for behavior disorder and was home schooled in middle school. He never went to high school, but got his GED four months ago.
Hazelwood's friend also brought up Hazelwood's struggles with schizophrenia, anxiety and that he may have Asperger's Syndrome.
"When he went away to get treated, he would come back and take his medicine," the friend said. "Then he would stop because, like a lot of mentally ill people, they think they are better and they don't need it anymore."
One of Hazelwood’s lawyers states that:
…his client has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Asperger’s Syndrome, multiple personality disorder and bipolar disorder.
While I hope Hazelwood spends the rest of his life in prison, I’m not without a certain amount of compassion for him. It seems he has been severely mentally ill since birth, and that is not his fault.
It also seems that some things went right. His grandparents sought help for him. Hazelwood was in and out of mental hospitals. He received counseling and medication.
Court documents state that his mother was ordered to attend counseling with him twice a month, and by herself once a month. She was also ordered to stick to a visitation schedule with her son.
“It is the hope of the parties that by doing the things set out herein, Ms. Hicks will learn how to parent a child with severe behavior issues so that one day they can be reunited in the same household,” a document dated July 20, 2005, states.
That reunion never happened. Hazelwood lived with his grandparents since birth.
With all the well-known red flags, why were guns kept in the home?
The grandparents are said to have been very loving to Hazelwood and well-liked by others.
It’s not my intention to vilify them. They took on a Herculean task—spending their middle-aged and senior years raising a severely mentally ill child that their daughter was unable or unwilling to raise. It must have been emotionally, physically and financially draining.
But in the end, they chose to keep guns in the house, despite their grandson’s mental illness and severe behavior issues. Despite the fact that he had previously stolen a gun and run away with it. Despite the fact that he expressed a desire to harm himself and others. And despite the fact that they were afraid of him.
The grandparents, according to Hazelwood’s attorney, were heartbroken to learn their grandson is a suspected killer:
“My client’s family is devastated by the tragic loss of two young people and that their grandson stands accused,” Attorney Lawrence Zimmerman said Thursday. “They are very religious and prayerful family. They can’t believe this has been brought to their doorstep.”
They feared him, yet can’t believe what happened? That is hard to believe. Time after tragic time, we see mass shootings committed by young men with the same history, the same red flag’s as Hazelwood’s. Who doesn’t know this?
The family lives within easy walking distance of the local high school. A busy movie theater is just a few traffic lights away. As devastating as the loss of the two teens is, a larger tragedy could have easily unfolded.
We need common sense laws regarding severe mental illness and gun ownership
Events continue to show us that too often, we can’t depend on people who live with severely mentally ill patients with violent tendencies to keep guns out of their homes.
Many people with cultural or inherited beliefs, like the belief that guns make life safer, will either overtly or subconsciously twist facts in a way that rationalizes their choices. Call it cognitive dissonance or cultural cognition, but people like Hazelwood’s grandparents may genuinely not believe that they’re playing with fire or putting communities at risk.
The frequency of these tragic stories won’t lessen until we enact strict laws that make it harder for the severely mentally ill to access guns. And that should include keeping guns out of the homes they live in.
Most patients with stable mental illness don’t present an increased risk of violence. Laws will have to be critically crafted in a way that doesn’t discriminate against or stigmatize the mentally ill. It will be challenging, but gun, law and mental health experts need to work together to define criteria and policies.
Tougher gun laws must be crystal clear so police can effectively enforce them
I had a hard time learning that police officers advised Hazelwood to play with his grandparents’ weapons in his own back yard. A police report from earlier that year shows that Hazelwood ran off with a handgun that he stole from his grandfather. His unusual interest in guns and weapons seemed to be documented, let alone alarming.
But legally, the police had no right to confiscate the grandparents’ weapons or order Hazelwood not to touch them.
One year and four months after the “only play with weapons in your own back yard” incident, in April of 2013, police responded to one of the more disturbing calls to the home. And apparently, still lacked sufficient reason to act:
Police were called to the home by Jeffery's [grandmother], who said that Jeffrey had taken knives and a sword from a gun safe.
Parts of the report are redacted.
Jeffrey Hazelwood told officers that he didn't want to talk to anyone about his problem. He said he didn't want to hurt himself, but had thoughts about it in the past.
The [grandmother] told officers that Jeffrey had stated weeks earlier that "he was going to blow and people were going to get hurt." He didn't say who, when or how, and that he didn't have a plan, the report said.
Despite Hazelwood’s alleged threat of harm to others and taking his grandparents’ weapons, the most important factor was that he said he had no current desire to harm himself or others. And despite the many police calls to his home, he had no criminal record. The police didn’t have sufficient reason to act.
We need tougher, clearly defined laws that enable officers to preemptively defuse a powder keg like Hazelwood. They must be able to confiscate weapons from the home in situations like this, and secure additional psychiatric evaluation. The criteria for action need to be specific. And as a country, we’ll need to invest more dollars in mental health care.
Data shows that strict gun laws reduce violent crime. Given the number of mass shootings committed by young men struggling with mental illness, this is a logical area to implement tougher laws.
Better long-term mental healthcare solutions are needed
At age 20, Hazelwood was an adult and no longer the grandparent’s responsibility. And in some ways, Hazelwood was functional. He worked at a Michaels and a Walmart. Both his managers say he was a good employee. It’s hard to argue that someone should be institutionalized when they’re getting good employee reviews.
And he had a girlfriend. Perhaps, as his anonymous friend suggests, medication helped when he took it.
But the grandparents feared him. They said he was making both homicidal and suicidal threats. They set a deadline for Hazelwood to move out of their home. That deadline was August 1, 2016, the day of the alleged murders.
Roswell, Georgia is lucky it didn’t become the next Sandy Hook or Aurora, Colorado. But that came at the unfathomable price of the brutal deaths of two teenagers who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. My heart breaks for the family and friends that must be suffering immeasurable grief.
Surely, we can do more to react to known red flags and prevent senseless deaths like this.
Sources
Students found dead behind Roswell Publix
Police called to suspect's home 8 times in recent years
Suspect in Roswell killings confessed all
Suspect in Roswell shootings didn’t seem normal
Court fights, police calls mark childhood of Roswell double-murder suspect
Hearing reveals family sought help for Roswell suspect years before gruesome murders
Saturday, Aug 27, 2016 · 7:12:56 PM +00:00 · AprilR
August 27, 2016. Detectives found writings of Hazelwood’s that indicate that he wanted to be an assassin. 11Alive News legal analyst Phil Holloway says:
“They will use that as motive, they will say that is someone who has a desire to kill, they have thought about this, they have planned it.”
Hazelwood dreamed about being an assassin. If he had tried to purchase a gun on his own, he wouldn’t have passed a background check due to his past institutionalizations. But living in a house with access to his grandparent’s guns made it easy for him to make his twisted “dream” come true.
Hazelwood is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, two counts of theft, and one count of identity fraud.
He is being held without bail. His case will be heard by a Fulton County grand jury on September 9.
Friday, Sep 9, 2016 · 10:00:13 PM +00:00 · AprilR
September 9, 2016. Hazelwood’s attorneys requested a continuance today. He remains in jail. His next court date is November 1st.
According to Kenneth Schatten, the attorney who helped Hazelwood’s grandparents get custody of him when he was an infant, Hazelwood’s mother may have contributed to his mental decline by raising him in a bad environment.
“She was a remarkably poor parent,” Schatten said. "He never had a chance."
Schatten says Sherri Hicks Hazelwood abused drugs and had strange men around her son. He described it as an environment that no parent should raise a child in.
“Everything we would not want our children exposed to,” he said.
Schatten says Hazelwood’s grandparents saw what was going on and hired him to get custody of their grandson.
The grandparents got custody, but Schatten doesn't think Hazelwood got the help he needed to overcome living with his mother.
Friday, Nov 11, 2016 · 3:15:47 AM +00:00 · AprilR
November 10, 2016. Hazelwood pleaded not guilty in Fulton County court this morning.
I’ll continue following this story in hope of learning details about how Hazelwood accessed his grandparent’s guns. The guns were said to be stored in a gun cabinet.
Sunday, May 14, 2017 · 10:16:49 PM +00:00
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AprilR
May 3, 2017. Hazelwood had a mental competency hearing on May 3, 2017.
Still no word on if the gun case with the grandparents’ gun was locked or not.
A clinical psychologist for the state testified that since Hazelwood has been on different medications since March, he’s doing better and is competent to go to trial for perhaps a week. The doctor is still struggling to determine which mental illnesses Hazelwood is suffering from.
The hearing ended with the judge deciding to rule at a later date on Hazelwood's mental capacity to proceed.