The man charged with stabbing 11 people at a Traverse City Walmart in July has been ruled incompetent to stand trial.
The decision, handed down Friday from 86th District Court Judge Michael Stepka, says Bradford Gille is not able to assist in his own defense.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that Gille was interviewed by a psychiatrist for two hours who also reviewed other records about Gille’s health.
Gille has a long history of mental health troubles. His family told Bridge Michigan they had been trying for 28 years to get him committed but that he kept falling through the cracks of a broken system.
In fact, law enforcement in Emmet County had been looking for Gille in the hours leading up to the attack. They said they received a court order to take him into custody on the afternoon of Friday, July 25.
The order had identified Gille as homeless with no known physical address in Emmet County. They did not specify what had prompted the order.
"In response to the court order, Deputies of the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office spent Friday evening patrolling and actively searching for Bradford James Gille," the department explained in a press release. "Unfortunately, their efforts were unsuccessful."
The stabbing happened the next day.
The Grand Traverse County prosecutor charged Gille with 11 counts of assault with intent to murder … and one count of terrorism.
All of those stabbed in the July 26 attack survived their injuries. Law enforcement officials said at the time that the attack could have been much worse, if not for the quick action of bystanders who worked to disarm and detain Gille in the parking lot.
Previous reporting from IPR's Claire Keenan-Kurgan contributed to this story.
