Aug 31, 2007 7:12 pm US/Eastern
Family: Stabbing Suspect Suffered From Depression
PENN HILLS (KDKA) ―
The family of a Penn Hills teenager accused of stabbing his 11-year-old twin brothers tried to have him committed the day before the attack, but failed.
Troy Hill's uncle, Ron Hill, tells KDKA his nephew had been suffering from depression for months but resisted help from friends and family.
He says the family did everything in its power to reach him, including trying to have him taken in for treatment the day before the tragic event.
Concerned about his behavior, the Hills contacted the Western Psychiatric Institute. The day before the double stabbing, Western Psych sent a mobile unit and evaluator out to the Hill home.
According to the uncle, the Hills wanted to have Troy committed, but he refused and Western Psych was prohibited because Troy would not go voluntarily.
Western Psych won't comment, but as an 18-year-old, Hill is an adult and in Pennsylvania, an adult can only be committed to a hospital against their will under very extreme circumstances.
"Somebody can be involuntarily hospitalized only on the basis of mental illness. And only direct evidence that the person is a direct threat to himself or others," Dr. P.V. Nickell, of Allegheny General Hospital, said.
Nickell says Western Psych could not hospitalize Troy, since at that point, he had shown no penchant for violence.
Now, Ron Hill says the family is left with an unimaginable tragedy.
"The whole family is going through a lot of grieving right now," he said. "It's an in-house situation you have one in jail, you one that's dead, and you have one that's hanging on. So right now everyone's very emotional about the children."
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
KDKA's Andy Sheehan reports
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