Community seeks answers to violent threats

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Whether it's Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado or Albuquerque where John Hyde killed five people , the community is left asking why didn't someone see this coming and stop it?
     
In New Mexico even when there is an open threat to kill, stopping it is difficult.

It is a reality everyday on Albuquerque streets, people threatening to hurt themselves or someone else.
    
Most of the time they're sent to the hospital for a mental exam and most of time they end up right back on the streets.
    
Earlier this month, police were called to UNM Hospital about a man who had gone to the mental health center there seeking help.
    
He was threatening to kill people because he felt the hospital had discharged him and he still needed help. Because there was no crime, he had already been seen and discharged.

Although cops' hands were tied, officers went above and beyond and got him into another hospital for reevaluation.
    
The law will not let anyone say what happened there.    

Mental health cases are so tricky and frustrating that no one wants to talk about them.
    
“We do nothing until someone pays the ultimate price,” Henry Reinchenbach’s attorney said.
         
Last summer Henry Reichenbach’s neighbors shot a video to back up their claim that Reichenbach often threatens and harasses them.

“You’re going to get your f**** a*** killed f**** with me.” Reichenbach said.
 
Reichenbach was not charged.
    
In the past he has been charged, but he was ruled incompetent to stand trial and was set free.
    
Mental health officials can not hold a person until they commit a violent crime.
    
In 2006 Albuquerque passed Kendra’s Law after Hyde, who was mentally ill, killed five people including two police officers.
    
The law would let police detain and commit people against their will for treatment for 72 hours if that person is believed to be a danger.
    
But a judge struck it down as unconstitutional.

Forty two other states have Kendra’s Law, which was named after a New York woman who was pushed in front of a subway train by a mentally ill man.
    
When mentally ill people do commit a violent crime here and are found to be dangerous, they're committed to the state mental hospital in Las Vegas.
    
If the crime is not violent, or they're not considered a danger, the case is dropped and they are back out on the streets.