A 24 year old Iraq war veteran, Itzcoatl Ocampo, had been accused of fatally stabbing 4 homeless men in Southern California and had been awaiting trial in the Orange County Jail. Ocampo was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. He had been sent to the hospital from jail after falling ill. Deputies at the jail noticed Ocampo "shaking and vomiting" in his solitary cell and immediately summoned medical attention. Ocampo was charged in January 2012 with four counts of first-degree murder. The first homeless man, killed a month earlier, was stabbed more than 40 times with a 7-inch, heavy-gauge Ka-Bar Bull Dozier knife, Orange County District Attorney said. "In each of these cases, the violence, the number of stabbing wounds of each victim, increased," the prosecutor added. The next month, Ocampo was arraigned on new charges that he killed the mother and brother of an old friend. Authorities say 53-year-old Raquel Estrada was stabbed more than 30 times and her 34-year-old son Juan Herrera more than 60 times on October 25, 2011, their bodies left in pools of blood inside their Yorba Linda home.
I just can't get over the amount of violence this guy showed. I mean, stabbing someone is terrible. Stabbing someone over 50 and 60 times is almost unbelievable. I mean, it seems like he was taking something out on his victims. I would have to guess that he must have been just completely sick in the head from his Military days or perhaps some other time in his life. These poor people and their poor families. I hate to hear such terrible things happening like this.
I agree, the amount of violence in this case is astonishing... It's possible that he had PTSD, and that that influenced his behavior.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how he died- was he poisoned, and if so, was it murder or suicide? Or was he simply sick? I suppose we'll have to wait for an autopsy and toxicology reports.
Tyra Harris, 5th period
ReplyDeleteThis guy is disgusting. I'm positive his military experience had nothing to do with his desire to stab people to death. If anything, after serving in Iraq, Ocampo would have never wanted to put violence on anyone.