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12 Hours after leaving emergency psychiatric unit Kevin Williams killed Cop

The mental competency trial is the latest judicial proceeding in the unusual history of Williams, who was first institutionalized when he was 10 and has since been cycled through hospitals, prisons, jails and the streets. Williams' odyssey demonstrates how people can fall through gaps where the criminal justice and mental health systems intersect. For instance, state prison officials wanted to put him in a state hospital after his most recent stint behind bars in 1999, but a judge overruled them. And a few days before Bennett was killed, Williams was taken to the county emergency psychiatric unit after he was arrested at Lindbergh Field for threatening to kill people. He warned police he would kill if they released him. He was sedated and stayed in the facility less than 12 hours before he was let out. A few days later, Bennett was dead. [more]