PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — The man who died after driving a car filled with explosives into the Multnomah Athletic Club had multiple interactions with clinicians responsible for protecting him from himself and making sure he was not a danger to the community.
After a suicide attempt in February, Bruce Whitman had been placed on a peace officer hold and taken to a hospital. His release from the hospital a few weeks later came with a notice of mental illness, a process which triggers an investigation to determine whether civil commitment should be pursued.
The state’s civil commitment process gave Multnomah County’s Behavioral Health Department five days from that point to investigate the case and decide whether to take Whitman to court and ask a judge to determine that he posed enough of a danger to himself and/or others that he should be held against his will…