The Latest: Aunt says mall killer sought mental health help

TAUNTON, Mass. – The Latest on stabbing attacks at a Massachusetts shopping mall and home (all times local):

5:25 p.m.

The family of a man who fatally stabbed two people and assaulted others inside a Massachusetts mall before he was shot and killed says he had been discharged from a hospital without being treated for his mental illness.

Authorities say Arthur DaRosa stabbed two women at a home in Taunton on Tuesday, killing one. They say he then drove to the Silver City Galleria Mall and stabbed two people at a Bertucci’s restaurant, killing one.

DaRosa’s aunt Liz DaRosa said Wednesday he admitted himself to a hospital on Monday and was discharged on Tuesday “without the proper treatment.” She says he wanted help but didn’t receive it.

She says he wasn’t a terrorist and was “someone’s child.”

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3:40 p.m.

A Taunton woman says her teenage daughter watched in horror as a man crashed his car into a Macy’s department store, then threw a store employee to the floor.

Authorities say 28-year-old Arthur DaRosa stabbed two women at a Taunton home Tuesday, killing one, then drove to the Silver City Galleria Mall. There, he beat at least three people in Macy’s, then stabbed two people at a Bertucci’s restaurant, killing one.

Lynn Coffey said her 17-year-old daughter, Amanda Stroud, was in Macy’s with a friend buying makeup for her prom. Coffey said her daughter made eye contact with DaRosa after he threw an employee down. She said her daughter and her friend ran out and called police from the car.

Coffey says she’s worried about how the incident will affect her daughter, but grateful that she wasn’t hurt.

___ 3:20 p.m.

Acquaintances of the suspect in fatal stabbings in Taunton, Massachusetts, say they are struggling to make sense of the rampage.

Police say 28-year-old Arthur DaRosa stabbed four people, two of them fatally, and assaulted others inside a mall before he was shot and killed by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.

Thirty-six-year-old Wendy Mason lives two doors down from the Taunton home where DaRosa grew up and where his family lives. She says DaRosa was always respectful and didn’t give any indication of struggles with mental health. She says no one will “be able to make any sense” of the rampage.

Jared Green says his older brother was friends with DaRosa. The 22-year-old Green says DaRosa was always cracking jokes but also had a temper. He says he doesn’t know why DaRosa would “do something like that.”

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3 p.m.

A Massachusetts sheriff is praising one of his deputies for stopping a deadly knife attack at a mall.

Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald Jr. said Wednesday that Deputy James Creed was off-duty, out of uniform and dining with his wife when Arthur DaRosa attacked staff and patrons Tuesday at a Bertucci’s restaurant in the Silver City Galleria Taunton, 40 miles from Boston.

Creed fired one shot from a personal firearm, killing DaRosa.

McDonald says he’s proud of Creed’s “heroic actions and his ability to apply his professional training and restraint in an obviously traumatic and perilous situation.”

Creed has worked for the sheriff since 2005.

A sheriff’s department spokesman says Creed won’t be available for comment. Creed has been placed on administrative leave, which is routine in such cases.

Authorities say DaRosa’s stabbing rampage killed someone at the mall and someone at a house.

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2 p.m.

Authorities are hailing three people as heroes for intervening when a man went on a stabbing rampage at a home and a shopping mall in Taunton.

District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said Arthur DaRosa was shot and killed by James Creed, an off-duty deputy sheriff who was eating dinner at Bertucci’s in the Silver City Galleria on Tuesday when DaRosa stabbed two people.

The prosecutor said teacher George Heath was in Bertucci’s and tried to get the knife away from DaRosa. Heath was fatally stabbed. Waitress Sheenah Savoy suffered serious injuries.

DaRosa also beat three women in Macy’s, where an unidentified store employee tried to stop him.

Quinn said the rampage began after DaRosa left his daughter’s soccer practice, crashed his car, then walked into a home and fatally stabbed 80-year-old Patricia Slavin. Her 58-year-old daughter, Kathleen, received serious injuries.

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12:30 p.m.

Authorities have identified the second victim who was fatally stabbed by a man who went on a rampage at a home and later attacked people at a shopping mall.

Eighty-year-old Patricia Slavin was killed, while her 58-year-old daughter, Kathleen Slavin, was seriously injured when Arthur DaRosa walked into their home while they were eating dinner Tuesday.

Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said DaRosa then drove to the Silver City Galleria and crashed his car into a Macy’s department store, where he beat three women.

Quinn said DaRosa then walked to a Bertucci’s restaurant in the mall, where he stabbed a waitress multiple times. She survived, but DaRosa fatally stabbed George Heath, a teacher who tried to take the knife from him.

DaRosa was shot and killed by an off-duty Plymouth County deputy sheriff.

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9:30 a.m.

One of the people killed by a man who went on a stabbing rampage in Massachusetts has been identified as a teacher.

The superintendent-director of Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical School says George Heath was a visual design teacher there.

The 56-year-old Heath was fatally stabbed Tuesday at the Silver City Galleria mall in Taunton.

Superintendent-director James O’Brien called Heath a “true gentleman” who had worked at the school for four years.

O’Brien says, “Heath was a tremendous educator with a great passion for teaching; he was influential in sparking creativity and a love of learning in all of his students.”

Authorities say assailant Arthur DaRosa also killed an 80-year-old woman before he was shot and killed by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.

DaRosa’s family says he was mentally disturbed.

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7:45 a.m.

Family members of the man who killed two people during a rampage in Massachusetts say he was mentally ill and has just been released from a hospital psychiatric ward.

Arthur DaRosa was shot and killed by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy after fatally stabbing one person at the Silver City Galleria mall in Taunton on Tuesday, shortly after he stabbed an 80-year-old woman in her home.

Kerri Devries, DaRosa’s sister, tells the Boston Herald her brother has been battling depression for years. She says he has recently been suicidal, and the “devil was playing tricks on him.” She says he was admitted to the hospital Monday.

DaRosa’s father, also Arthur DaRosa, tells the newspaper he was surprised when his son returned from the hospital Tuesday morning, but said he appeared “normal” and calm.”

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2:30 a.m.

Authorities are trying to determine why a man went on a stabbing rampage in Massachusetts, killing two people and assaulting and stabbing more in a house and a shopping mall before being shot dead.

The suspect in Tuesday’s attacks has been identified as 28-year-old Arthur DaRosa.

Authorities say it all began when DaRosa crashed a car outside of a house in the city. They say he walked inside the home and stabbed two women, including an 80-year-old who later died.

Authorities say DaRosa then drove to the Silver City Galleria mall, where he crashed into the front of Macy’s department store. They say he assaulted multiple people inside the store before running to Bertucci’s restaurant and stabbing two more people, including a 56-year-old man who died at a hospital.

An off-duty sheriff’s deputy then fatally shot DaRosa.