Runaway mental patient stabs three in south-eastern Finland
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A mental patient who escaped from the Valkeala psychiatric hospital on Wednesday stabbed three people in the Kouvola region in south-eastern Finland in the early hours of Thursday and on Thursday morning. Police caught the man in the nearby city of Kuusankoski later in the day. The first victim was only slightly injured and has been allowed to leave hospital and go home.
However, in the incident on Thursday morning, the other two randomly-chosen elderly victims were both stabbed repeatedly, resulting in life-threatening injuries.
The mental patient had been transferred from a nursing home in Kouvola to the Valkeala hospital on Wednesday. He ran away at around 5 p.m., and at around midnight he returned to the Kouvola nursing home and stabbed a female nurse repeatedly in her hands and sides.
On the following morning the man attacked two people in Elimäki, not far from Kouvola. The first victim was an elderly woman, whom he stabbed in the stomach several times. The severely injured woman was rushed to hospital. Shortly afterwards, the perpetrator stabbed an elderly man three times through an open car window. The male victim was also gravely injured.
Kouvola police made an immediate emergency announcement over the radio in order to catch the fugitive.
The public was warned about the man, who was known to be unpredictable and dangerous. After being sought by twelve police patrols and by a helicopter belonging to the Finnish Defence Forces, the escapee was eventually surrounded and caught in downtown Kouvola later in the morning.
According to the Kouvola Police Department, the man has said little, and no reason for the stabbings has been found as yet.
The perpetrator, born in 1972, has a record of several violent crimes, including attempted manslaughter, dating back to the early 1990s.
According to Dr. Heli Peltola of the Valkeala psychiatric hospital, it is not uncommon that a patient runs away from the hospital. It happens more or less on a monthly basis. "However, it very seldom happens that an escaped patient behaves in a violent manner. The majority of our patients are entirely harmless", she says.
While acknowledgeing that the incident had unreasonably severe results, Dr. Peltola issued an assurance that the surveillance practices of the hospital are to be re-evaluated, in order to prevent similar escapes from occurring in the future.
Helsingin Sanomat
