Ethan Layne, Despair, And Mental Health

A weird case out of Key West, Florida.

Because the video does it the most visual justice, we can begin there:

This happened two Saturdays ago (May 4) in Key West, Florida. Around 6pm, this dude Ethan Layne — a groundskeeper at a local country club — just took this tractor, drove it to a college, destroyed a bunch of plumbing, flipped over some cars, and was apparently looking for a few people to target. 911 calls were made and the cops got there. He bashed the cop’s window out with the tractor, as seen in the image associated with this post, before he was subdued. In the video above, if you watch the arrest portion, Layne begins crying and apologizing, then has what I’d call a full “mental health break” and starts screaming about how people violated him and were owed vengenance and stuff.

He is currently being held (May 17 is his first court appearance) on three counts of attempted murder. I don’t know all Florida legal statutes, but I would assume he’s gone from mainstream society for 20 to 40 years, if not more. His actions on a random Saturday in the May of his 22nd year on Earth will essentially forever define this guy. It’s sad. If you watch the mental health snap during the arrest, you realize there’s a bigger picture here that needs to be addressed; and if you’re a rational person, you realize jail probably won’t address it and will make it worse. That said, can you let a guy who indiscriminantly steals tractors and bashes police cars with them walk free? You likely cannot.

So, we arrive at the modern mental health pickle: what do we do with a guy like Ethan Layne?

For the life of me, I cannot answer this question.