Dad: Man had housing stress before stabbings in Columbus

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The father of a man accused of stabbing four in an Ohio office building said his son is schizophrenic and might have been stressed after his aunt told him to move out.

One of three knives John W. Mallett had during the Wednesday attacks came from the kitchen in the aunt’s Columbus home, father Ronald Mallett, of New York City, told The Columbus Dispatch. Police said the attacks appear random.

“I’m really, really sorry about the people he hurt,” Ronald Mallett said.

The father said John Mallett’s aunt asked him to move because he had been causing problems, and he thinks Mallett might have been searching for a housing agency when he went to downtown Columbus, where the attacks occurred.

He said the family had for years tried to get his son help, but they were turned away by the courts and mental health system.

“So you’re going to wait until four people get stabbed, and now what? I mean, it’s too late now,” he said.

The younger Mallett, 37, was charged Thursday with four counts of felonious assault. Authorities said he stabbed the men in a building that houses a college and other offices before running outside and being shot on the street by a police officer.

Police video of the officer’s response shows her shooting toward the suspect within seconds of her arrival. Video from Officer Deborah Ayers’ police cruiser records her firing multiple shots at a man just 11 seconds after her car stops a few dozen feet from the scene.

Mallett lived in Nashville, Tenn., for 10 years until a month ago, when he moved to Columbus, police said.