*** I thought we had this one in some form but I could not find it. ***
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...mhe-story.html
Failed government efforts to help the mentally ill are to blame for the death of a Queens woman at the hands of her troubled ex-cop son, the suspect's brother said Friday.
Maria Diaz, 78, was found dead inside a bedroom in her Queens Village apartment around 7:50 p.m. Wednesday, bleeding from a deep slash wound to the back of her head, investigators said.
Her son, Osvaldo Diaz, 45, is sought for questioning in the case. Mother and son shared the second-floor apartment above a beauty salon on Hillside Ave. in Queens Village.
Members of the Diaz family have no doubt Osvaldo killed his mother ' but they are certain he wasn't of sound mind when he did it, the suspect's brother, Christian Diaz, told the Daily News.
'Although I believe my brother did it, that's not the point,' Diaz said. 'The point is that my brother has been suffering from mental illness for many years now, and we have reached out to the mental health department multiple times explaining that we believed our brother was becoming a risk to our mother.'
Police have not arrested or charged Osvaldo Diaz with the killing.
Christian, 38, said he and his family tried to support Osvaldo any way they could following his bipolar schizophrenia diagnosis around 2004.
After putting himself through college, where he studied finance and criminal law, Osvaldo was hired by the NYPD in July 2005, a department spokesperson confirmed. At one point, he was posted at Manhattan's Midtown North precinct, a source told The News.
The missing man's family ties Osvaldo's 2008 termination from the force with his serious mental decline.
'He was a police officer, he was still in the probationary period. I don't know what happened, but I know that after that his mental health started to deteriorate,' Christian Diaz said.
Christian and his mother sounded alarm bells multiple times, he said. They successfully got Osvaldo into a psychiatric facility on one occasion, but its operators disagreed with their belief he posed a safety risk to Maria at home.
'When he was not mentally stable, he would not address her as mother but as 'the lady' or sometimes call her 'a robot,'' Christian said, describing his brother's symptoms of paranoia.
'He's in constant fear and suspects the woman he's living with to be someone different than she was. It's a recipe for disaster, and I hate to say I'm right, but look at the ending.'
Time and again, Christian said his genuine concerns were not taken seriously by city-run services like the Mobile Crisis Teams units, which operate two dozen units in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, according to its website.
'I used to tell them, 'Are you going to wait till he hurts himself or somebody till you do something'' And their answer was, 'Unfortunately, that's the only way,'' said Christian.
The city Health Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Christian Diaz said honoring his late mother in this harrowing moment means looking out for Osvaldo.
'I owe it to my mom to honor her wishes, and her wishes were for my brother to be OK. And despite whatever my human nature makes me feel, it doesn't overpower the wishes of my mother,' he said.
'The only thing she wanted was his well-being. She proved that's all she cared about with her life, and that's the frustrating part. I strongly believe that this could have been avoided had repeated calls and requests for help been met.'
He said reports Osvaldo is a hardened criminal or otherwise violent in nature are categorically false. He described his brother as a doting uncle, sibling, and son. Osvaldo was the oldest of Maria's nine children.
'My brother loved his family. Up until he started to have mental illness, he was a loving part of the family,' Christian said.
Maria was aware of the inherent risks of living with Osvaldo, Christian noted. Still, she was more concerned for her son's safety in city or state-run mental health facilities, where he'd been attacked before.
'She paid with her life the price for that decision, trying to protect my brother.'
As of late Friday, while Christian was at a funeral home trying to make arrangements, police were still searching for Osvaldo.
Detectives have put up wanted posters near the Diaz family home, offering a $2,500 reward for any information about the attack.
'If you went around, asked about my mother, they would tell you about the love for her loved ones,' Christian said of his mom.
'She is a person that puts everybody in front of herself, and the fact that this happened to her is a tragedy I cannot live down.'