00:00Bueno, en tuesday, Omaha police shot and killed Noamie Guzman in the Walmart parking lot
00:06as she was holding a kitchen knife to a three-year-old child.
00:10Last year, a judge, Rua Guzman, should remain under court supervision
00:14because she was a danger to herself and a danger to others.
00:19First Alert 6's John Chapman takes a look at the legal aspects when it comes to an insanity ruling.
00:24Two years ago, Noamie Guzman climbs out of a second-story window of a South Omaha church,
00:30law enforcement on the ground waiting for her.
00:33Before her capture, police say Guzman totally trashed the rectory
00:37and was earlier accused of setting her father's house on fire.
00:42Guzman faced four felonies for all of her alleged crimes.
00:46The courts ruled she was not responsible by reason of insanity.
00:50Assistant Professor of Law at Creighton University, Lee Ellis, says
00:54an insanity ruling is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
00:59All it does is it initiates a new legal procedure.
01:02So after the finding of not responsible by reason of insanity,
01:06what happens next is there's a hearing during which the court is going to order an evaluation.
01:12Professor Ellis says based on that evaluation, the court will make a number of decisions.
01:16One of those decisions is if the person is a danger to themselves or others.
01:21Then the court must decide what is the appropriate placement and treatment.
01:27So once placement is determined and treatment is figured out,
01:31the next step is to let the person go, whether that's in custody or in the community.
01:36Professor Ellis says the laws surrounding not responsible by reason of insanity are complicated,
01:42and there are times when people who should not be in the community end up out in the community.
01:48And that's one of the issues we're seeing is when an individual is placed at the Lincoln Regional Center,
01:53we have a unitary authority, right?
01:56We have one agency that's responsible to ensure that the individual is complying with treatment
02:01and to communicate with the court if there is a lack of compliance.
02:05When an individual is placed in the community, we lose that structure.
02:10And it's often in the loss of that structure that people fall in the cracks.
02:14And there are times when people who need help do fall in the cracks
02:18and end up causing harm to themselves and to others.
02:22In Omaha, I'm John Chapman, First Alert 6.
02:26Douglas County mental health care officials tell us they cannot share how many patients
02:30are monitored for risk factors for potential violence because of HIPAA laws.
02:35Simply put to hold to an otter who is left for a system.
02:35And that's why we need to be able to help our students.
02:35We want our students to be able to become a social worker with staff.
02:35Yeah, we want to help them to be able to do the best for our students.
02:36You want their staff to be able to support them.
02:36¡Gracias!
