Mental Health Worker Fatally Stabbed While Delivering Medication

Mental Health Worker Fatally Stabbed While Delivering Medication
ABC News

(ST. HELENS, Ore.) The stabbing death of a mental health worker has put the spotlight on the safety of home visits.

Jennifer Warren, 38, was killed Sunday while delivering medication to a patient in St. Helens, Ore., ABC affiliate KATU reported. Warren worked for Columbia Community Mental Health, which provides in-home counseling and medication management for people with mental illness.

"She was a real good worker," Columbia Community Mental Health's director Roland Migchielsen told KATU.

"We had her for 10 years, and this is a devastating loss."

The suspect, 30-year-old Brent Redd, was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries, KATU reported. Police would not say whether Redd's injuries were self-inflicted or the result of a struggle with Warren, but did say he called 911 to report what he'd done.

In 2007, Redd was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted murder of his mother. He was sentenced to 20 years under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board, a sentence he started serving in Oregon State Hospital. But in 2010, the board granted Redd conditional release into community care.

"Public safety is the first concern of the Psychiatric Security Review Board," Mary Claire Buckley, executive director of the board, said in a statement Sunday. "Today's tragic incident is the first time in 34 years when any client under the board's jurisdiction has been alleged to have committed a violent act of this nature."

Because of patient confidentiality laws, the nature of Redd's mental illness is not known. His family told KATU he had been taking antipsychotic and antidepressant medications, but that the doses had been scaled back for an upcoming surgery.
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