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Man kills his wife and 3 children in North Carolina murder-suicide, officials say
Robert J. Crayton Jr., 45, is thought to have opened fire in his High Point home, police said. Two adults escaped.
By David K. Li | Commentary by Rick Wallace, Ph.D., LInk
Commentary
While I work with people of all races, I have an obvious connection to the Black community. The sad thing is I get stories like this on my desk more than I care to admit. As a community, Blacks tend to avoid the conversation of mental illness and mental disorders. This avoidance of discussing and confronting mental health comes at a steep price with Black women being most likely to suffer from depression. Additionally, over the last 5 years, there has been a 30 percent increase in suicide in the Black community across genders and age groups. We have experienced a 49 percent spike in suicides among Black males between 14-24. What may be most devastating is that we now lead the suicide category of girls between 5-13.
The second leading cause of death for Black females between 15-44 is intimate partner homicide.
At what point are we going to acknowledge that we are dealing with a serious issue that is not going away simply because we deny it exists? We can no longer push the narrative that Black people don't kill themselves, because we do---at an increasing rate. We must face the fact that we are in a state of crisis and we need to be proactive in confronting this enigmatic issue head-on.
While this story is tragic, it is simply a microcosm of a much larger issue that we continue to sweep underneath the rug. The lumps in the rug have become stumbling blocks to healing and progression. The elephant in the room has all but sucked the air out of it. We need to support programs designed to help socialize Black males into manhood---preparing them to cope with the unique pressure of Black manhood. Programs like Black Men Lead are designed to properly racially socialize Black boys so that they develop into pro-social Black men who are assets to the community. Wrap-around services like the mental health programs at The Odyssey Project are designed to provide the resources necessary to help people who suffering find relief. What we cannot afford to do is sit idly by and watch from the sidelines as we destroy ourselves from the inside out. There is an African proverb that says, "Where there is no enemy on the inside, the enemy on the outside can do us no harm." It is the endogenous forces that are ravaging our communities at this point. The time to act is now! ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.
Read the Story
A man with a history of mental illness opened fire inside his North Carolina home, killing his wife and three children before and then himself, police said Monday.
Robert J. Crayton Jr., 45, fatally shot Athalia A. Crayton, 46, Kasin Crayton, 18, and two other children, who were 16 and 10, on Saturday morning, High Point police said.
"In my 27, pushing 28, years in this police department, we've never had anything like this happen before," High Point police chief Travis Stroud said. "Clearly an impact case for us as a police department (and) as a city."
Two people, 25 and 22, who were in the house fled shortly after 7 a.m. and started banging on neighbors’ doors pleading for help, police said.
One of those adults was a “direct relation, and the other was an acquaintance,” High Point police Lt. Patrick Welsh said.
The motive for the shooting was unclear Monday afternoon.
"That's going to be a piece of the investigation. I've expressed this to the family, we may never know why — what goes through the hearts and minds of a person who would do this sometimes dies with him," Welsh said. "We don't have any indication right as to the 'why.' "
The crime scene was particularly gruesome, and Stroud said he worries about his officers who that day could "see what you can't unsee."
"We have to monitor our own officers now. This was a heavy-duty crimes scene," the chief said. "We have to watch out for our own officers and their own mental health and how they push through this incident."
High Point police officers had responded to the address of Saturday's shooting five other times since 2014, officials said.
The shooter was the target of a Jan. 3, 2022, involuntary commitment, officials said, though police are still seeking more information about that case.
"He was suffering from some mental illness," Welsh said. "I can't speak to the reason under the involuntary commitment. But we do believe it was taken out by the family."
Saturday's murder-suicide in North Carolina came three days after authorities said a Utah man gunned down seven members of his family before killing himself.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
