We had some drama among the music faculty and students the other day. We had a stabbing.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called to the University of Minnesota Morris’s Humanity and Fine Arts building just after 4 p.m. on a report of a stabbing.
A witness led the officer to a room where the victim, identified as a percussion instructor at the school, was bleeding and suffering from an injury to the arm. The witness told police that the victim had come to his office with “blood everywhere” and identified Cusey as the suspect.
A student, Alexander William Cusey, had attacked one of our instructors for reasons that are unclear.
In the hospital, Cusey told the doctor that he was “trying to kill my percussion instructor” and that he “stabbed my pinky a little bit,” according to the complaint.
He also told an officer that the instructor was a “goodie two shoes” and described the stabbing as “thrilling” and “hilarious.”
Cusey allegedly added that he had had previous violent fantasies involving his parents and his high school.
I don’t recognize the student, but then he was working on the opposite side of campus. I don’t think he’s at all representative of our student body, and clearly has some issues.
At least I can say our administration responded decisively — Mr Cusey was immediately arrested, is currently in jail awaiting trial, and won’t be returning to campus.
The best part of this ugly story is that he somehow didn’t get his hands on a gun. Perhaps this will end with him getting mental health treatment to make him safe, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Yes, clearly psychotic. But he’s unlikely to get compassionate treatment.
He also told an officer that the instructor was a “goodie two shoes” and described the stabbing as “thrilling” and “hilarious.”
Cusey allegedly added that he had had previous violent fantasies involving his parents and his high school.
Yeah, well, if this these statements are accurate then mental health becomes the focus. He is also lacks competence in regard to his fantasies. Sad human all around.
At least he failed early before he had time to enhance his skills and successfully carry out those fantasies.
I can only agree with what the others have written. Some kind of mental issue that requires being sequestered inside a psychiatric facility for quite some time.
And if he had been using a gun – or worse, some AR-15 clone – this day would have ended very differently.
Sweden had a stabber a few months ago, sadly it ended worse than your case.
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Note that he seems young. The good thing is, the earlier caught the better for rehabilitation.
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People with schizophrenia quite rarely have delusions that make them a danger, without being an MD I get the impression it is something else.
Real psychopaths are rarely clinically insane, the case of Breivik showed it can be very difficult to diagnose mass killers.
I don’t see the value in publishing a photo of a man who seems, with high probability, suffering a chronic mental condition. It’s reasonable to expect he is schizophrenic and his behaviour is not the result of some kind of learned bigotry. If true, his life is going to be rough enough without being shamed for being ‘born this way’. I’m glad he was arrested, and I’m glad he will not be on campus. I hope he will be appropriately assessed.
I also hope the percussion instructor is doing ok.
You think schizophrenia makes people dangerous and violent? OK.
But be aware that sort of thing drives negative stereotypes.
I see value in seeing his photo, in case he comes back.
Yeah, as someone with a friend who has a formal schizophrenia diagnosis, schizophrenia doesn’t really make you anything in particular; it’s effectively the creative/imaginative streak that everybody has to some extent, except not checkpointed back against reality often enough. It’s like practicing an argument in your head but then feeling like the argument actually happened. (There’s a reason why it’s also a diagnosis historically associated with artists.)
So in some ways it’s like being drunk: it doesn’t make someone an asshole, it just makes them a lot less likely to stop themselves before outing themselves as an asshole.
@7 ^ This.
Also a lot of people are making an assumption that he has mental health issues. He could just be an arsehole.
As Jenora pointed out @8, those are not mutually exclusive.