Suspect in chase spent time in mental hospital

RALEIGH -- A man shot by police after a high-speed chase through downtown Raleigh earlier this week was involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital two years ago after telling a psychologist he heard a voice in his head telling him to kill people.

A custody order signed by a Wake magistrate on August 26, 2006, instructed that Renford E. Butler be taken to Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh for help.

Butler had told a psychologist at Wake County Crisis Assessment Services that he heard commands telling him to commit suicide and homicide.

He had a specific plan for killing himself, according to the record.

Butler was also "off his meds," had been hospitalized for mental illness in the past and had tried to commit suicide at least once, according to the psychologist's handwritten notes.

Deemed an immediate danger to himself and others, Butler was transported to Dix by a Raleigh police officer, the record shows.

The document does not indicate how long Butler remained at Dix or what treatment he received.

Mark VanSciver, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said he could not comment on whether Butler had been a patient there, citing patient confidentiality laws.

Butler remains at WakeMed today, following surgery. A hospital spokeswoman said today that police had requested they not release any word of his condition.

Butler was shot by a Raleigh police officer Tuesday after a car chase that reached speeds of up to 90 mph before Butler crashed a stolen cab near the state legislature.

Police say Officer J. Bloodworth fired after Butler brandished a straight razor. Bloodworth is on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, as is standard procedure after an officer-involved shooting.

Butler has not yet been charged with a crime.

Police say the chase began after Butler robbed the cab driver who had taken him from Durham, where he was living, to the Dorothea Dix campus.

He had been released from the Durham County jail a week earlier after completing a 45-day sentence for fraudulent use of a female friend's ATM card.

Julie Linehan, the Durham attorney who defended Butler on the fraud charge, said she now believes her former client asked the cabbie to take him to Dix because he sensed he was mentally unstable.

"I think he knew he needed help," Linehan said today. "He didn't have the cab driver take him home, or to his girlfriend's house or some other place. He went to Dix. If he had been there before, why else would he go there?"

Police are being tight lipped about Butler's case.

Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said this week that further information would be provided as part of a standard report police submit to the city council five days after an officer is involved in a shooting.

michael.biesecker@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4698