How lack of mental health resources in Texas led to jail death

She requested the lady to repeat herself.

“Your son, Fred, was in an incident,” a lady mentioned. “You want to come now.”

An incident? However her son was in jail.

What might presumably have occurred?

Fred, who was 19 and had an IQ of 62, had been struggling for years with depression and anxiety, unable to cope with the sudden nastiness of his friends and not sufficient mental health resources in excessive school. He began threatening suicide. He began operating away. He began living on the streets.

So when Fred was arrested three weeks earlier than Halloween final 12 months, Dallas thought jail was a godsend — a spot the place his deteriorating mental illness would lastly be addressed, a spot the place he wouldn’t harm himself or be harm by others.

As an alternative, a fellow inmate at Harris County Jail allegedly beat Fred so severely that he was mind useless by the point she arrived at Ben Taub Hospital 40 minutes later. Sitting at his bedside saying her goodbyes, Dallas shook with anger. Her candy, outgoing son — who by no means met a stranger and had garnered the nickname “Fearless Fred” — was gone.

His death on Oct 31, 2021, is a devastating reminder of how mentally ailing children can fall by means of the cracks: They find yourself in crisis, on the streets or thrust into the adult mental health system the place psychiatric beds are so scarce jail is commonly the one choice.

A Houston Chronicle investigation discovered that each school district in Texas — together with Fred’s — failed to have the enough quantity of all 4 really helpful mental health professionals (nurses, psychologists, counselors and social staff) between the 2013 and 2020 school years.

SECOND IN A THREE-PART SERIES
A Houston Chronicle investigation has discovered that tens of millions of Texas kids have gone with out the suitable level of mental health care in school for years.

PART 1: Texas colleges do not have sufficient mental health providers

PART 2: A 19-year-old with mental illness wanted help however as an alternative was killed in Harris County Jail

PART 3: A small school district in North Texas takes in children dealing with huge mental health challenges

EPILOGUE: How can colleges provide mental health providers for college students? Here is one professional’s suggestions.

To learn earlier installments in this collection go to houstonchronicle.com/incrisis.

USC FELLOWSHIP
Stephanie Lamm and Alex Stuckey reported this investigation whereas taking part in the USC Annenberg Middle for Health Journalism’s 2021 Knowledge Fellowship, which offered coaching, mentoring and funding to help this mission. To study extra about the program, go to www.centerforhealthjournalism.org.

A NOTE ON SOURCING
To reconstruct what occurred to Fred Harris earlier than he was killed in the Harris County Jail, the Houston Chronicle’s Alex Stuckey and Stephanie Lamm spent a number of months reviewing court docket paperwork, police stories and medical records obtained from the family and by means of open records requests. They watched hours of recordings of court docket hearings. They scoured social media platforms for people who might need recognized Fred and tracked down witnesses to the incident that landed him in jail.
They interviewed Fred’s family members, buddies and witnesses to his arrest, each time potential, they verified accounts with witnesses and paperwork. Direct quotations used in the story got here from contemporaneous recordings, police paperwork, records of court docket hearings or the recollections of members who consented to interviews; in every case, these quotes have been verified by the people to whom they’re attributed or a family member. Italics had been used when people recalled their very own ideas.

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For Dallas, that was simply the primary breakdown as Fred struggled to cope with getting older.

He didn’t receive mental health providers as he transitioned into maturity.

She struggled to get guardianship of her particular wants son.

A competency analysis wasn’t ordered for Fred till greater than two weeks after he was arrested.

Because the sound of Fred flatlining stuffed the tiny hospital room, Dallas started to wail.

How did this occur to my son?

August 2002
Galveston

Fred had been alive for just some days when Dallas’ wholesome, 8-pound boy began quickly shedding pounds. Medical doctors at The College of Texas Medical Department at Galveston caught him full of tubes and wires, hoping to get him again on monitor.

They weren’t positive what occurred. However as weeks changed into months, it was clear one thing was incorrect with Fred.

Regular duties will probably be laborious for him, they instructed her.

He could by no means give you the chance to tie his footwear.

He could by no means give you the chance to learn.

We’re sorry.

That wasn’t an acceptable reply. Dallas was a single mother and going to nursing school. Even with a 1-year-old son at residence, she fought to get Fred resources.

She transported him again and forth to medical doctors appointments, the place they labored on high quality motor skills like choosing and pinching.

She bought him into therapy and made positive his day care programs had been sufficiently small that he acquired the suitable level of consideration.

She put him in sports and actions that saved his thoughts and physique busy.

He all the time needed to do extra.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Bonham Elementary
Houston 
2008-2013

Fred leaned over the cluttered eating room desk, urgent his pencil so laborious into the workbook the lead tip saved breaking.

It was the weekend. Fred’s family was gathered at his grandmother’s home enjoying video games and eating hourslong meals.

However Fred’s schoolwork was extra necessary to Asa Garcia, Fred’s older sister. She sat patiently with him, readjusting his fingers across the No. 2 pencil, correcting his spelling and math.

“Repeat after me, Fred: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.”

Fred scrunched up his face in focus.

“G, A, D, F, C.”

Asa, 13, sighed. Serving to Fred might be so irritating. At 8, Fred nonetheless didn’t know the alphabet. He nonetheless couldn’t learn or write.

When Asa and Dylan, Fred’s older brother, performed hide-and-seek, Fred didn’t perceive the place they went or what he was supposed to do.

They tried to educate him board video games, from Bother to Monopoly, however he couldn’t process the foundations. Even Uno was complicated for him — he repeatedly put down playing cards that didn’t match the colour or quantity, gleefully screaming “UNO!” even when he had extra playing cards in his hand.

At Bonham Elementary, he had a devoted aide who helped him navigate school — he’d had an Individualized Training Plan, or IEP, since kindergarten. If children teased him for being completely different, he had a counselor who was ready to intervene.

Exterior of school, Asa did the intervening. When children refused to play basketball with him as a result of of his dimension, she would use herself as a bargaining chip — providing to be a part of Fred’s group although she was at least 5 years older than most of the children enjoying.

***

Fred trailed behind his brother, Dylan, as the 2 marched by means of the neighborhood in search of bored children wanting to play soccer.

The 2 had been solely a 12 months aside, however nobody would know by wanting at them. Dylan towered over Fred — a superb head taller even at simply 11 years previous. Dylan didn’t care.

Different boys teased Fred and mentioned he was too small to play. Dylan by no means made him sit on the sidelines. Fred was an lively participant in all their video games.

Dylan had heard his mother speak about how Fred was completely different: That he may not give you the chance to do the whole lot Dylan did, that he would possibly want defending.

“Go straightforward on him,” she repeatedly instructed him. “He may not perceive as a lot as we do.”

However Dylan didn’t actually get it. He was all the time simply Fred, the marginally annoying little brother who copied the whole lot his older brother did.

Because the group of scabby-kneed boys assembled in the road, Dylan smirked at his brother.

Even when he by no means caught it, Dylan would all the time throw Fred the ball.

MIDDLE SCHOOL
Houston and Stafford
2013-2016

“KIAI!” Fred screamed as he kicked at his invisible opponent throughout martial arts apply, his footwear squeaking on the mat.

Fred loved karate. He loved basketball and dance. He loved T-ball and soccer. He loved sports.

Virtually each day after school, Fred raced to the health club for hours of actions run by school personnel. Fred was doing nicely. He had aides serving to him and counselors at his disposal.

He had buddies and got here residence from school completely happy most days. On the uncommon event that children picked on him, counselors had been there to handle the state of affairs. Dallas barely had to become involved.

Pondering again to the years of hardship she confronted when he was younger — all the medical doctors who mentioned Fred wouldn’t quantity to something — she couldn’t help however smile.

They had been all incorrect about her little boy.

A bunch of children surrounded Fred, pelting him with pinecones and laughing. Fred saved yelling at them to cease, attempting in useless to dodge the scaly projectiles.

Dylan was on the opposite facet of the park, enjoying basketball. He heard the commotion and sprinted to help.

“Cease it, y’all! Cease!”

They didn’t.

Dylan had been defending his youthful brother for years. He stood up for Fred in the classroom when he struggled to spell and in the hallways when he macked on a woman who already had a man and brought on a scene. The park was no completely different.

“I live with him so I perceive he can get irritating,” his explanations would all the time begin. “However you’re choosing on a special-needs child.”

Generally, phrases had been sufficient. Generally, like right this moment, Dylan would have to use his fists.

“I might have taken them, man!” Fred mentioned when the group dispersed.

Fred believed it. Dylan knew higher.

***

The January air was crisp in 2014 as Dallas walked Fred and Dylan throughout the brink of their new residence in the Fort Bend County suburb of Stafford, a transferring field on her hip and one other little one in her stomach.

After years of living in a townhouse in Houston, Dallas and her children would lastly have house — and so much of it.

She thought it might be higher for Fred. He’d have a pool. He’d have a yard. She deliberate for him to go to Dulles Excessive College, the place she had heard the particular education providers had been stellar.

However Fred’s recent begin in Stafford turned out to be lower than promising. The neighborhood, albeit protected, had much less children for Fred to play with. The pool didn’t get as a lot use as she hoped.

Their new residence wasn’t zoned for Dulles, sitting roughly a avenue outdoors the school’s attendance boundary. Dylan and Fred ended up at Stafford Excessive College.

Abruptly, her son — who, at 13, might barely write his identify and struggled to learn — was wandering halls bustling with 1,000 college students. Neither of them had been ready for how tough it might be.

HIGH SCHOOL
Freshman 12 months
Stafford
2016-2017

Fred got here residence from school and went straight to his room, blasting music to drown out the destructive ideas swirling in his head. Dallas knocked on his bed room door.

“Fred, what occurred?” she shouted over the music.

“They referred to as me retarded.”

Dallas put her head in her fingers. Extra and extra, Fred was coming residence in tears. Youngsters made enjoyable of him for dancing in the hallways although they cajoled him into doing it.

They made enjoyable of him for being little; for being completely different.

Imply messages from his classmates pinged his cellphone throughout dinner, his bedtime routine or their weekly recreation nights.

Dallas’ bubbly, outgoing son was drawing inward. And it was breaking her coronary heart.

Dallas had taught her son to flip to a counselor or aide when he bought upset at school.

However his freshman 12 months, Stafford Municipal College District had about six counselors and two psychologists to serve its 3,500 college students.

That meant there was only one counselor per 567 college students and one psychologist per 1,770 college students. Nationwide advocates say colleges ought to have one counselor per 250 college students and one psychologist per 500 college students.

There weren’t sufficient counselors to help him. With out these adults round to diffuse the state of affairs, Fred got here residence with pent-up anger.

Prior to now, he had used sports as an outlet. He used to make all the groups at the YMCA. However now, he was too small. He didn’t make any rosters.

“Let’s speak about it, Fred,” she mentioned. “Please let me in.”

However Fred didn’t need to speak. He needed to wallow.

Dallas had been by means of the teenage part with Dylan. That was laborious sufficient. She knew Fred’s could be much more fraught with land mines.

Sophomore 12 months
Stafford
2017-2018

Fred was extra excited than he had been in months — he was speaking so quick and inserting so many dance strikes into his story that Dallas struggled to perceive him.

“I’ve bought new buddies, and they assume I’m cool!’’ he instructed his mother, beaming.

Greater than something, Fred needed a gaggle of buddies. However one thing about this crew gave Dallas an uneasy feeling. She requested to meet them — it was, after all, normal protocol.

Fred mentioned no.

Then, whereas cleansing Fred’s room, Dallas observed her son’s cologne assortment was lacking.

“Fred, the place are your issues?” she requested.

“You’re simply going to be mad at me,” he mentioned.

Fred’s new buddies had been taking his issues. As extra belongings disappeared round the home, Dallas put in safety cameras.

Watching the recordings again one evening throughout a piece shift, Dallas noticed Fred letting his buddies into her home. They requested Fred to present them the place his mother saved her jewellery. They took his garments, his Christmas presents, his birthday cash.

With a toddler at residence, Dallas feared for her family’s security. She instructed Fred he couldn’t hang around with these children.

That angered Fred.

***

Each creak of her 21-year-old home, each footstep on the touchdown introduced Dallas racing to the entrance door wanting for Fred.

Fred hadn’t come residence from school that April day. For hours, she’d waited for him to stroll by means of the door, fists full of apologies:

I stayed late at school to work on a mission.

I used to be hanging out with buddies and misplaced monitor of time.

However she’d referred to as. She’d texted. He hadn’t responded. And now it was darkish. Now she was scared. She referred to as the police at 10:08 p.m.

“My son hasn’t come residence from school. It’s been hours.”

They instructed her to stay calm. That they might look at his standard haunts.

“Don’t panic but.”

Dallas couldn’t help it. Fred had been having extra and extra hassle at school — the one crowd keen to settle for him the incorrect one.

She paced again and forth between her living room and kitchen, watching the clock and holding her breath.

At 11:30 p.m. Stafford law enforcement officials confirmed up at her doorstep. There was Fred, holding a greasy paper bag from Sonic.

Dallas took a deep breath. He was protected.

An officer walked Fred up stairs to his bed room.

“You didn’t develop up like this,” the officer mentioned. “What’s the issue?”

“She doesn’t let me hang around with my buddies. She doesn’t let me have my freedom,” Fred mentioned.

Dallas had run away from residence when she was 14 and spent all evening laying on a bench on the seashore staring up at the celebrities. She was terrified {that a} meteor would fall out of the sky and kill her.

There was no approach Fred would run away once more — her candy little child had to have been scared your complete time, similar to she was all these years in the past.

Fred ran away three extra occasions that 12 months.

***

Fred had been gone for two days when Asa’s cellphone pinged with a Twitter notification. Somebody had seen Fred at an condo pool about a mile from Dallas’ home in Stafford.

Asa felt her physique unclench for the primary time in days. Dallas, Asa and Dylan had been wanting for Fred nonstop, the July warmth bearing down on them as they searched fuel station parking tons, neighboring streets and the grounds of Stafford Excessive College.

There’d been no sign of him. Asa put out a call for help on Twitter. It had paid off. Asa referred to as her mother, and the 2 of them raced to the condo complicated.

Fred was completely happy to see them, appearing prefer it was no huge deal that he’d been gone two days with out a phrase.

“I’m hanging out with my buddies,” he mentioned of the group of children Dallas was involved about. “I’m simply swimming.”

Fred didn’t need to come residence. Ultimately, they satisfied him.

Junior 12 months
Stafford
2018-2019

Fred slammed his thumb down on the Ps joystick, taking his frustration out on the tiny males with weapons on the display screen.

“Mother is being so laborious!” Fred shouted at Dylan by means of his Ps headset. “She received’t let me do something!”

Dylan had moved in with his uncle in Texas Metropolis, however he all the time made positive to join with Fred by way of Facetime or, extra usually, over a online game.

Normally, Fred would cry. Tonight was no exception.

Fred had repeatedly run away from residence over the previous 12 months — generally leaving in a huff simply to present up at school, unshowered and hungry.

And each time, Dallas referred to as Dylan in tears, hoping he might speak sense into his little brother.

“What are you attempting to achieve from this, Fred?”

Fred by no means answered, merely repeating the mantra that their mom was controlling — that she was ruining his life.

However Dylan knew higher. His mother wasn’t asking Fred to do a lot. She was simply attempting to shield him.

“Simply do what she asks,” Dylan mentioned by means of his headset.

However it was December and Dallas had had sufficient. She thought again to a advice made by an officer earlier that 12 months — that Fred would possibly do nicely in a psychiatric facility with an inpatient program for teenagers. The previous 12 months of outbursts, operating away and police knocking at her door weighed on Dallas.

She dedicated him.

***

Fred and his family had spent the morning bowling, stuffing themselves with pizza and soda to the unmistakable sound of pins crashing at the top of the lane.

It was Good Friday. Dallas’ children didn’t have school. They had been sitting down to play a board recreation when Fred wandered upstairs to take a bathe.

Dallas thought nothing of it. The family performed board video games each Friday, and Fred was recognized to drift away when he’d had sufficient. She saved chatting with her buddies.

Then: A knock at the door.

Who might that be?

The crisp uniforms and shiny badges of Stafford Police greeted her. They had been there to conduct a welfare verify.

“What are you speaking about?” she requested.

They instructed her Fred threatened suicide on Instagram. They wanted to see her son to be sure he was protected.

This have to be a misunderstanding.

Fred had by no means talked about suicide earlier than.

Did he even know what that phrase meant? Hadn’t they simply had a enjoyable morning?

The officers went up to his room, the place Fred was sitting on his mattress, enjoying on his cellphone. 

She thought he was mimicking behavior he noticed on social media. Nonetheless, she knew she wanted to have a severe speak with her son.

“Did we not have a superb day?”

Fred seemed so little sitting on his queen-sized mattress.

“Y’all had been doing your individual factor and you didn’t embrace me.”

It was a cry for consideration. Dallas was relieved.

However Fred’s behavior was alarming. He began saying he deliberate to starve himself to death. She once more put him in a Houston mental health hospital.

She didn’t know if it might do any good.

Senior 12 months
Stafford
2019-2020

Fred beamed for the digicam, a plastic purple lei round his neck and his little brother, Jagger, by his facet.

Dallas couldn’t help however tear up: Regardless of all the ups and downs — the outbursts and the operating away — her son had graduated excessive school.

He even had a job lined up. It’s what they’d each dreamed of for years. However it was additionally terrifying. Fred was about to flip 18. And she or he was about to lose management.

If he ran away from residence, the cops couldn’t do something — he could be an adult.

If he bought sick, she couldn’t speak to the medical doctors about his treatment — he could be an adult.

She had began the process of getting guardianship, however it was extra sophisticated than she might have ever imagined.

As a result of he introduced as excessive functioning, Grownup Protecting Service officers usually struggled to gauge his precise presence of thoughts. Dallas felt completely helpless.

He received’t cease being particular wants at 18. Why doesn’t the system permit me to shield him?

Might 2020
SUN Behavioral Houston
Houston

Dallas might hear the nurse from SUN Behavioral Houston on the opposite finish of line, however the phrases appeared incomprehensible.

Fred had a light alcohol and hashish use disorder. Had she thought of a drug rehab program?

Drug rehab? What are they speaking about?

Dallas had admitted Fred to the hospital, an inpatient psychiatric facility near the Texas Medical Middle in Houston, when he tried to slit his wrists every week after commencement.

By this level, Fred had been identified with main depressive disorder. It was reoccurring. And it was extreme.

She knew Fred wanted inpatient care. However she had been rising more and more nervous about Fred’s time at SUN Behavioral.

If she had been being trustworthy with herself, it appeared just like the psychiatric facility was doing extra hurt than good.

Many of the children he was interacting with had mental points far more extreme than Fred’s. That they had extra vital behavioral issues, and much more problematic family lives.

However Dallas had no different alternative — there was nowhere else for him to go, and it wasn’t protected for him to be at residence.

She hadn’t recognized Fred to have drug points in the previous.

Rehab wasn’t what her son wanted. However the program was 90 days. It was a far cry from the two-week stints he was doing at native psychiatric amenities each time he was in crisis.

The hospital referred him to a program in Pasadena. A COVID outbreak despatched him residence early.

August 2020
Houston

Dylan answered his mother’s cellphone call, anticipating one other half hour spent bragging about his little brother.

She’d been calling so much to gush about Fred — how he had graduated, how he had gotten a job, how he lastly had his life on monitor.

However this call was completely different.

“He’s gone once more,” Dallas mentioned dejectedly. “He’s at your aunt’s home.”

Fred had gone to Missouri Metropolis after operating away, hitching a trip with anybody who would take him.

His aunt had discovered him roaming round a grocery retailer and introduced him residence.

This was one of the best case state of affairs. Fred was with somebody who loved him and would take care of him.

However over the subsequent few months, Fred ran away from his aunt’s home a number of occasions.

He went to his uncle’s subsequent, the place they provided him as a lot freedom as potential — handled him as very similar to an adult as they may.

Inside days, he’d left there, too.

November 2020
Alvin

Savannah Hypes’ cellphone began chiming nonstop, the acquainted sound of her SnapChat notification drawing her away from her favourite TV present.

The messages had been all from buddies she made in rehab earlier that 12 months. They usually had been all about Fred.

In numerous states of panic, her buddies implored everybody to look for the smiling, completely happy child who might by no means cease dancing. He had gone lacking. He shouldn’t be alone.

Savannah sucked in a breath. She had simply talked to Fred a couple of months in the past.

The place might he have gone?

It was only one of many occasions Fred had run away from his aunt’s in the previous months.

Savannah was 16 when she met Fred in rehab. Although boys and ladies at the facility weren’t supposed to speak, they discovered their methods — assembly in shaded corners outdoors and leaving messages taped to desks or scrawled throughout lavatory partitions.

She was instantly drawn to Fred as a result of he was so completely different from everybody at the facility. As an alternative of despair, he had hope. As an alternative of being indignant, he might by no means cease smiling.

Savannah closed SnapChat and opened Instagram, shakily typing in Fred’s deal with. No latest posts.

She typed out a message.

“Should you want something, let me know.”

April 2021
Webster

Fred’s shirt was damp with sweat as he skated across the curler rink at FunCity Sk8, Asa on his heels because the neon lights pulsed round them.

The extra laps they took, the extra giggles Fred elicited.

For a short second, it was like previous occasions, when Asa would take her little brother on dates each few weeks.

However when Asa and Fred sat down for ice cream at Baskin Robbins, they had been rocked again to actuality.

“Fred, you will have to cease operating away once you’re mad about one thing,” Asa mentioned.

For the previous eight months, Fred had been living on and off with his aunt in Texas Metropolis. He could be there for a couple of weeks, get mad about one thing foolish and depart, simply to come again every week later.

Fred saved digging into his scoop of chocolate.

“I perceive you get pissed off,” she mentioned. “Simply come to my home. I’m not going to have a bedtime for you. I need you to simply come right here to decompress.”

She urged him to call her each time he wanted.

He mentioned he would.

August 2021
West Oaks Hospital
Houston

Racial and homophobic slurs echoed by means of the halls of the 160-bed psychiatric facility in Houston — the bulk directed at staff.

Amber Bush, 35, took it all in, flinching at each offensive phrase that fell out of the imposing patient’s mouth.

It was her first day at West Oaks. She had again surgery and had taken too many drugs. She was not in a superb place.

What have I gotten myself into?

Then, a small voice piped up — a voice almost as small as {the teenager} it got here from.

“Don’t say that!”

The slurs had been then lobbed at him, a verbal assault that just about escalated to violence earlier than staff was ready to sedate the offending patient.

By the point it was over, the teenager was crying. Amber couldn’t help however assume of her 19-year-old son — how scared he could be in a spot like this.

“Hey buddy. It’s OK. What’s your identify?”

“Fred,” he choked out.

Over the subsequent 4 days, the 2 grew to become inseparable, Fred exhibiting Amber the ropes and Amber defending him.

Fred was all the time smiling, all the time laughing — a lot in order that she began calling him Smiley.

However behind the completely happy facade, Fred was struggling. He instructed her his family didn’t need him — that he had no alternative however to live in a homeless shelter.

Generally, he slept in the park. Generally, he had to eat meals out of a dumpster.

He didn’t know what he would do as soon as discharged: People at the homeless shelter had been threatening to kill him.

When Amber was launched for one other again surgery, the 2 vowed to preserve in contact.

“Return residence, Fred. Your family loves you.”

September 2021
Hockley

Amber was laying in mattress, recovering from two failed again surgical procedures and a lumbar fusion, when her cellphone pinged. Grimacing, she reached for it, a smile coming to her face when she noticed it was Fred.

The 2 had remained in contact since their brief time at West Oaks — they’d even gotten lunch as soon as.

However the photograph that popped up on her cellphone made her gasp. Fred — her candy, foolish Fred — was holding a knife to this throat.

“Want I wasn’t right here,” he wrote in the textual content.

“You’re higher than this, Fred.”

Fred by no means responded.

Later that month in Stafford, Dallas answered an unknown quantity. The voice on the opposite finish nearly made her weep.

“Mother, it’s me.”

Months had handed since Dallas final heard from Fred. A good friend instructed her that he had once more checked himself into a neighborhood psychiatric hospital, possible utilizing Medicaid. She couldn’t help however be proud.

This was proof that she had raised him proper. He knew he wanted help and he had sought it out.

“Would you like help?” she mentioned into the cellphone, holding again tears.

“I’m nonetheless attempting to determine that out mother.”

She understood. She was prepared to carry him residence if he was prepared to observe some floor guidelines.

She readjusted her 1 12 months previous daughter, Saturn, in the criminal of her arm.

“There’s one other child right here,” she mentioned. “You may’t steal. You may’t have people in the home — it’s not truthful to everybody else.”

“I’m going to be scared,” she added.

Fred waited a beat earlier than responding.

“I don’t need to make you scared mother,” Fred mentioned. “I’m drained of disappointing you.”

Oct. 10. 2021: 4:14PM

A number of witnesses call 911 reporting a Black man strolling in the center of
Westheimer Street in Montrose holding a four-inch steak knife.

“1201 Westheimer. Black pants with neon inexperienced stripes standing in the center of the
avenue. Probably has mental points,” police call over the radio.

That man was Fred.

Fred, 19, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a lethal weapon, a second diploma felony.

Oct. 11, 2021

A Harris County listening to officer orders that Fred be interviewed to decide
if he has a mental illness or is an individual with an mental incapacity.

Oct. 12, 2021: 4:56AM

A possible trigger listening to is held. Fred was being held in the mental health unit and wasn’t current.

The state asks for a $75,000 bond. The court docket disagreed.

“I learn this fastidiously: There’s no accidents, no stabbing,” the court docket listening to
officer mentioned. “The closest he bought was 20 ft? The lethal weapon is a knife however …”

The court docket, as an alternative, set bond at $20,000.

Fred remained in jail.

Oct. 27, 2021

Dallas talks to Fred’s court docket appointed legal professional and hears her son on the opposite finish of the cellphone.

“Mother, it is a scary place,” he mentioned softly. “It appears like I’m in a foul dream.”

A music lover, Fred scratches out his emotions about being in jail in a music.

Michael Paul Ownby, a 25-year-old Houston man with a historical past of violence had simply
been convicted of steady violence in opposition to the family.

Whereas being escorted right into a cell at the Harris County Jail, the 6-foot 2-inch
240-pound man struck a detention officer. He was charged with assault of a public servant.

Oct. 28, 2021

The Harris County jail receives an order from the court docket to consider Fred’s competency.

Oct. 10, 2021
1201 Westheimer Street, throughout from Slick Willie’s in Montrose
4:14 p.m.

Automobiles dodged previous Fred as he wandered down the center of Westheimer Street, shirtless and clenching a 4-inch steak knife.

A Houston man, who wished to stay anonymous for worry of retaliation, was standing outdoors a close-by enterprise the place he works and chatting with buddies. When he noticed Fred, he did a double take.

What’s he doing with that knife?

He’d seen Fred in the world for the previous 4 or 5 months — simply one other misplaced child, he thought, attempting to discover his approach.

It was clear to the witness that Fred was mentally ailing, however he appeared like a pleasant sufficient child. They’d even chatted as soon as earlier than.

However the Fred he noticed right this moment was not the identical teenager.

He had a vacant look in his eyes, like he was having a mental episode.

Although he didn’t seem threatening, the witness’ thoughts flashed by means of information story after information story about mentally ailing people assaulting others with out realizing what they had been doing.

He bumped into the constructing and locked the door.

Fred walked up to the glass door of the enterprise and stared in at the witness and the opposite staff. Hand nonetheless clasping the knife, Fred meandered away.

The witness dialed 9-1-1.

“9-1-1 what’s your emergency?”

“There’s a person wandering round with a knife. I believe he’s mentally ailing.”

Over the police radio, a dispatcher instructed officers what to look for.

“Black pants with neon inexperienced stripes standing in the center of the road.”

“Probably has mental points.”

They arrested Fred and cost him with aggravated assault with a lethal weapon.

Oct. 12, 2021
Harris County Courthouse
4:56 a.m.

The solar hadn’t even risen by the point Justice of the Peace Diana Olvera, listening to officer for Harris County Felony Courts, referred to as Fred’s identify.

His possible trigger listening to, the place an officer determines whether it is fairly plausible {that a} crime has been dedicated, was supposed to occur at 10 p.m. the evening earlier than. He’d been pushed to 4 a.m. this morning.

However Fred’s slight body and intently shorn hair couldn’t be discovered amongst the six sleepy people sitting in the courtroom.

He was in the jail’s mental health unit. He wouldn’t be current right this moment, Olvera mentioned.

Two days earlier, Fred had been arrested in Montrose after a number of people referred to as 9-1-1, reporting a person with a knife.

Dallas was relieved — it felt like she’d opened a Wonka chocolate bar and discovered a golden ticket.

In all the years she’d been attempting to get Fred help, she’d been instructed over and over once more that the easiest way to do this was for him to go to jail — a spot the place he could be evaluated for mental illness and formally labeled incompetent.

And the court docket had already ordered that Fred be interviewed to decide if he had a mental illness or developmental incapacity.

That morning, the state requested for a $75,000 bond, saying he introduced a “present menace of bodily violence.” Olvera was incredulous.

“I learn this fastidiously: There’s no accidents, no stabbing,” she mentioned. “The closest he bought was 20 ft? The lethal weapon is a knife however …”

Noting his lack of prison historical past, Olvera set Fred’s bond at $20,000 and moved on. The court docket appointed him an legal professional, Kirk Oncken, later that day.

Fred remained in jail.

Oct. 27, 2021
Stafford

Dallas might hear Fred’s muffled voice in the background of a method call with his legal professional. She knew her son nicely sufficient to catch the refined notes of panic effervescent up at the top of his sentences.

“Mother, it is a scary place,” he mentioned softly. “It appears like I’m in a foul dream.”

Dallas’ coronary heart broke. Her child boy — whom she had grown, whom she had nurtured, whom she had tried to preserve protected — was terrified.

However she additionally knew this was the get up call he in all probability wanted.

Weeks earlier, she had referred to as the jail to inform them he shouldn’t be in the overall inhabitants as a result of of his IQ. She dropped off his IEP paperwork from school. She thought steps had been taken to shield him.

Sitting in Harris County Jail, Fred put pencil to paper and started to scratch out his feeling in music:

“I swere Im in this b*** for nothing these n***s all the time beginning one thing i really feel like god dont f**** love me I gess thats why he all the time decide me after I was locked up in da pin my n***s didint ship me shit I swere I needed to f**** cry god oh god why did you set me on this earth ben going by means of hell since delivery/i/swere im depressed as f*** that’s why I shoot that sh** up”

Michael Paul Ownby, a 25-year-old Houston man with a historical past of violence, had simply been convicted of steady violence in opposition to the family. 

Whereas being escorted right into a cell at the Harris County Jail, the 6-foot 2-inch 240-pound man struck a detention officer. He was charged with assault of a public servant.

The next day, the court docket ordered a psychiatric examination to decide Fred’s level of competency.

Oct. 29, 2021
Harris County Jail
10:40 p.m.

Fred and Ownby had been in their shared cell at the Harris County Jail, having a late evening chat.

What allegedly occurred 36 minutes later was laid out by the district legal professional’s workplace in a listening to:

Video surveillance reveals Ownby stroll over and start wailing on Fred — first with his fist and, then, a shiv usual from a sharpened utensil.

Ownby had half a foot and 140 kilos on the 5-foot 8-inch, 98-pound Fred. Ownby struck Fred over and over in the face and neck. After the primary few hits, Fred crumpled to the concrete ground of their cell.

Ownby threw the shiv throughout the room, grabbing Fred by the neck and, later, the shirt. He slammed Fred’s head into the concrete ground 10 occasions.

Blood pooled beneath Fred. He wasn’t transferring.

However that didn’t cease Ownby, who began stomping Fred’s head with his left foot. He then picked Fred up and threw him at the cell door like a rag doll.

The 25-year-old alternated between slamming Fred’s head into the concrete, and stomping on his head over and over once more. 

When detention officers lastly arrived and detained Ownby, Fred was unresponsive. They transported him to Ben Taub Hospital in Houston.

It was too late.

Epilogue

Jagger lay susceptible on the ground of Fred’s room sobbing, his brother’s dimension 9 flip flops tucked underneath the mattress as if Fred had simply returned residence from school and climbed underneath the covers.

“Can Fred come residence now?” he begged Dallas, his little voice cracking.

Tears sprang to Dallas’ eyes. She scooped Jagger up and carried him out of the room.

“I want, child. I might give something.”

Fred’s room hasn’t modified since his death: The framed bible verse stays on his bedside desk. The plant hanging in entrance of his window remains to be alive.

If Dallas closes her eyes, she will nonetheless image him sitting there, enjoying video video games and speaking trash with Dylan by means of his headset.

The absence of her fearless, cheerful boy — the boy who danced in the kitchen; who by no means missed a family recreation evening; who knew each Coldplay album by coronary heart — is palpable.

She’s employed an legal professional, hoping to get justice for her son. The lawsuit hasn’t been filed.

In an announcement, the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned that Fred’s death remains to be underneath investigation by its Inner Affairs Division, its Workplace of Inspector Basic and the Texas Division of Security’s Ranger Division. The findings of the interior evaluation will probably be turned over to the workplace’s Administrative Disciplinary Committee for any coverage or process infractions.

“These disciplinary measures might embrace, suspension and or termination of that worker (or staff),” the assertion mentioned.

The outcomes of the Rangers’ investigation will probably be given to the Harris County District Legal professional’s Workplace.

The final time Asa spoke to her brother earlier than his death was their date evening in April.

She nonetheless talks about Fred in the current tense, as if his voice was only one cellphone call away.

She will be able to’t consider she’ll by no means once more get to take him out for ice cream or sing at the highest of their lungs whereas dancing their hearts out.

After Fred’s death, Dylan stopped eating. He couldn’t cease crying. He thinks again to all the occasions he didn’t drop the whole lot and choose Fred up when he was roaming the streets in crisis.

Might I’ve saved him?

Dylan is at the moment planning his wedding ceremony. Fred was all the time supposed to be his finest man — to hype the celebration up and get everybody dancing.

It will likely be a tricky day, not having him there. However greater than something, Dylan is upset Fred won’t ever have his personal wedding ceremony. By no means have his personal children. By no means develop previous with somebody he loves.

Amber Bush was watching the nightly information in November when she noticed Fred’s photograph flash throughout the display screen.

“Dallas Garcia is grieving the loss of her 19-year-old son, Fred Harris,” the information reporter mentioned. “Authorities say he died after a combat on Friday …”

Amber began to shake. The remainder of the report was a blur as she hopped on Fb to affirm the information.

She thought again to the numerous occasions Fred instructed her he feared being killed by others living in the homeless shelter. She imagined that’s why he was carrying a knife on the day he was arrested.

Might I’ve prevented this? Ought to I’ve taken him extra critically?

The witness who referred to as the cops when he noticed Fred wandering round with a knife was at residence scrolling by means of Reddit when he noticed a headline about Fred’s death. He burst into tears.

What would have occurred if I hadn’t referred to as the cops that day?

Stafford Excessive College is a campus inside Stafford Municipal College District. Gracie Martinez, a spokeswoman for the district, mentioned staff and college students had been “deeply saddened” by Fred’s death.

“So as to attain his educational targets, the district was ready to provide him with each inner and exterior providers, and this was executed in partnership with the family,” she mentioned in an announcement. “Each little one is completely different, and our staff works collaboratively with every pupil, their family and the community to provide providers and helps that meets every little one’s educational, behavioral, and social/emotional wants.”

Dallas mentioned it wasn’t sufficient.

Specialists advocate that districts have particular pupil to mental health professional ratios in order to serve college students finest. These ratios are one per 250 college students for each counselors and social staff, one psychologist per 500 college students and one nurse per 750.

Stafford failed to meet these ratios yearly that Fred attended excessive school.

Martinez mentioned that the “district implements a staffing formulation that’s board-approved and commensurate with our pupil inhabitants.”

Harris County has a jail diversion center, the place mentally ailing people will be transferred as an alternative of being jailed.

If police encounter somebody with a mental health problem, they will call the District Legal professional’s Workplace Consumption Line. An official with the DA’s workplace — in collaboration with the officer concerned — can decide that jail diversion is an effective match or determine to file prices.

The program sometimes is reserved for people accused of low-level, non-violent offenses. Fred was charged with a felony.

A Harris County listening to officer ordered that Fred be interviewed to decide if he had a mental illness or an mental incapacity the day after he was arrested. However a competency analysis wasn’t ordered till the day earlier than he was crushed, greater than two weeks later. 

Kirk Oncken, Fred’s appointed legal professional, didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.

All native mental health authorities and native behavioral health authorities — which contract with the Texas Health and Human Providers Fee to provide mental health care statewide — supply transition-age youth providers for children who want help as they enter maturity. Discussions about these providers are really helpful to start round age 14, for these with “severe emotional disturbance.”

Between 2017 and 2021, 1,053 people participated in the program, which provides employment assistance and housing, for instance.

Dallas had by no means heard of these providers, she mentioned.

Martinez mentioned the Stafford school district provides all college students age 13 and older with transition information.

Michael Paul Ownby has been charged with homicide in Fred’s death. At his possible trigger listening to in November, it took the state two-and-a-half minutes to describe the brutal assault on Fred.

Tributes to Dallas’ children adorn her physique: The planet Saturn etched into her finger for her child daughter; ‘Jagger’ in crimson letters operating down her proper arm.

Fred and Dylan’s names are on her proper shoulder. She positioned Fred’s identify on her left forearm, nestled right into a music note-turned infinity sign.

She tries to keep robust for her youngest children, however her life is now a string of reminders.

A stocking on the mantle that Fred won’t ever once more tear off the hook on Christmas morning.

A stack of books by no means cracked.

A pair of glasses gathering mud on a bookshelf.

Generally she will’t help however assume:

How can I presumably survive this?