An extreme case of domestic violence led a Superior Court judge to order a man accused of killing his father to be held on $1 million bail, but not before undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. Defendant Mohammed H. Salem is accused of fatally stabbing his father, 69-year-old Hakem Salem, in an attack at the family home in Estate Lerkenlund on Tuesday morning.
According to information given to police who responded to the scene, the accused has suffered from mental illness for several years and was sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting his father in an earlier incident. Investigators also discovered an active restraining order issued by the court ordering Mohammed to stay away from his father at the time of Tuesday’s attack.
He is charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, assault with intent to commit murder, possession of and assault with a deadly weapon, criminal contempt of court, and brandishing a deadly weapon in a circumstance other than self-defense.
Superior Court Magistrate Judge Simone Van Holten-Turnbull presided over the initial hearing Wednesday morning, but no further proceedings were scheduled at that time, pending the outcome of the court-ordered evaluation.
Court records say authorities were summoned to the Salem family home shortly before 8 a.m. on Tuesday. There, they met Jamil Salem, also a son of the victim. Jamil told police he was approached by Mohammed, who appeared to have something hidden under his arm. The object turned out to be a large knife, which the defendant began swinging at his brother.
As a struggle ensued, Jamil said his father appeared and Mohammed began stabbing him. Emergency medical technicians tried to render assistance, but the elder Salem succumbed to his wounds and was later pronounced dead.
A manhunt began for the suspect, who had fled the scene, and an alert was sent out to area residents. Mohammed — still armed with the knife — was found in a rocky area as searchers made their way towards Hull Bay.
Police said it took several minutes to get the suspect to drop his weapon and surrender, but eventually he did.
In spite of efforts to seek legal protection against the violence that ended his life, Hakem Salem became the territory’s latest victim of domestic violence. His death comes several days after lawmakers considered a bill that would have created a rapid-response mental health crisis team.
But health professionals at St. Thomas’ East End Medical Center said there are no easy solutions. The Source reached out to Roland Riviere, a mental health clinician.
Riviere said that even if there was a crisis team at the scene, their efforts are short-term and fall short of what is needed. Patients having a mental health crisis need a place to go where they can be stabilized with medication and monitored for up to six weeks.
The approach of setting up crisis teams, he said, is like putting bandages on the territory’s mental health crisis. “We can have all the crisis teams we want, but where are we going to place these patients?” the counselor said.
The counselor also made a chilling prediction in light of the pending departure of Dr. J. Zen Meservey. Dr. Zen — as he is known — is a Board Certified Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who Riviere said has spent the past eight years treating patients, writing prescriptions, adjusting medications, regulating dosages for his own patients and others.
“After this happened, it might happen again, especially when we have Dr. Meservey leaving the island, who is the only — I think — full-time psychiatrist on island right now. He’s eight-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week… Who’s going to do that? We don’t have that on island anymore, and his caseload is high,” Riviere said. “There’s a lot of vulnerable folks out there who can snap like that.”
