YOUNGSTOWN Burdman takes steps for security

A client has been indicted in the slayings of an aide and another client.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Burdman Group, which provides vocational rehabilitation for the Mahoning County Mental Health Board, has hired round-the-clock security after Feb. 28 shootings in which a client and a staff member were killed.
Hope E. Houser, 34, of Campbell, who was a janitorial program aide, and Wynn Bogan, 23, of Lowellville, a Burdman client, were shot in the back of their heads at Belmont Avenue and Gypsy Lane as they sat in the front seat of a Burdman van.
Houser was driving Bogan and the man accused of the slayings, client John Staples, 24, of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, to a work site at a roadside restaurant on state Route 11, south of Canfield.
Murder indictment: Staples was indicted on two counts of capital murder and is being held in Trumbull County Jail without bail.
After the killings, Family Services, which provides a comprehensive assistance program for Burdman employees, began to review the situation and counseling the staff.
However, there was to be more fallout from the shootings.
At. 6:30 p.m. March 17, an unidentified man walked into the Burdman Home, 278 Broadway. He told staff not to worry, that he didn't have a gun, but said the shooting that happened (Feb. 28) could happen anytime here. Then he left, Nancy Bailey, Burdman personnel director, said Thursday at the Mahoning County Mental Health Board meeting.
The events caused Fred Sonnett, Burdman executive director, to hire round-the-clock private security, at a cost of $15,000 a month, at the Broadway campus and for offices at 1350 Fifth Ave., Bailey said.
Other security measures: Bailey said Burdman is doing what it can to improve security, but there is no way to guarantee safety 100 percent. She said other measures, such as installing buzzer entries and locking more doors, have been taken since the killings.
Also, Bailey said, a committee of Burdman administrators was formed to review what happened, and policies and procedures, to see if everything was done correctly and if anything needs to be done differently.