Bill de Blasio cites mental illness as larger issue after rampage

A violent rampage in Astoria, Queens, that left a shop owner dead, a woman slashed and two police officers burned illustrates the pressing need for stronger mental health services, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

James Patrick Dillon, 23, struggled with mental illness and was not taking his medication when he attacked several people Sunday in three separate incidents in his neighborhood, police said. He was shot and wounded by the officers after he threw a chemical at them from a Corona beer bottle, police said.

De Blasio said his administration’s ThriveNYC mental health plan teaches coping techniques in childhood but also provides individualized treatment to those with both serious psychological struggles and a history of violent behavior.

“This horrible tragedy over the weekend is not only very painful but also very complex, because the individual had no history of violence,” the mayor said. “We don’t have all the details yet, but for what we know, this is not someone who would have come up on the radar as a particular threat.”

He said Dillon’s family “deserved more help to figure out how to handle the problems that that young man was having.”

The city with a $850 million, four-year investment is working to destigmatize mental illness and make treatments available to “help keep people from ending up in violent situations, ending up homeless, ending up on Rikers Island,” de Blasio said, addressing reporters after an unrelated Chelsea event.

The NYPD is being trained in the use of Tasers, but the confrontation between police and Dillon escalated quickly and the arresting officers weren’t able to use the devices, he said.

The violent spree and daylong manhunt began when Dillon slashed his female neighbor Sunday morning, police said. A couple hours later, he entered a liquor store, where he fatally stabbed the owner and threw an accelerant on another man and lit him on fire, police said. He attacked two officers with the accelerant in the evening and was shot and arrested, police said.

The neighbor and the two police officers have been released from the hospital, police said.

With Alison Fox