When James Mossettey was discharged from an Upper East Side psychiatric ward onto NYC’s dark and desolate streets on the morning of Aug. 31, his sister, Jessica Hernandez, says “he had nowhere to go.” Within two hours, he was dead, struck by a yellow cab at East 72nd Street and York Ave. and dragged all the way to the Queensboro Bridge, without the driver stopping.
According to Hernandez, their mother died from AIDS, which James contracted at birth. Growing up with the stigma of being HIV+ and the associated health struggles, “broke him” at an early age, she says. From childhood to adulthood, Mossettey’s life was spent in and out of jail, therapy sessions, and hospitals. He was too volatile to live with his family, who often saw his picture in the news after several recent escapes from police custody.
“Clearly the system failed that family,” said Assemblyman Tony Simone, who helped pass the “Support Act,” which is designed to help families like Mossettey’s with “better care and compassion.” Simone is adamant that people suffering shouldn’t be left to their own demons on the street when they are released from a psychiatric ward. There should be “a continuum of care instead of jail time for low-level offenses,” he said.
Police arrested the taxi driver and charged him with leaving the scene of a deadly accident. The 71-year-old told investigators he had just worked a 12-hour shift and wasn’t aware he had hit anybody.
Source: Yahoo! News
