Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504240066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But when two Botetourt County deputies tried to serve a mental detention order on him Saturday morning, they didn't know about that threat.
Harlow turned on them with a hatchet, knocking both to the ground before two fatal shots from one of the officers ripped through his chest.
"They were defending themselves," said Harlow's son, Bruce. "There was nothing else they could do."
The story of Leon Harlow offers sad testimony to the lingering, savage effects of a mental illness called manic depression, where emotions teeter-totter between extreme highs and lows.
His first major bout with the disease came three years ago, when his family decided that he needed medical help. He was bitter for a while about the forced commitment to Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Hospital.
Leon Harlow, 65, had always been a proud man who cared for his family, worked as a train conductor for the Norfolk Southern Corp., and devoted more than 40 years of his life to his wife, Evelyn.
"Until this disease took him over, you couldn't find anyone to say anything ill about my dad," Bruce Harlow said.
But about a month ago, the disease flared up again and Leon Harlow started to imagine that his family was conspiring against him to take away his farm, his son said.
He also was coping with profound changes in his married life as Parkinson's disease robbed his wife of her ability to care for him as she once did.
For several weeks he had been threatening to kill members of his family that he imagined were out to do him harm.
That led family members on Thursday to ask a magistrate for an emergency custody order that would force him to get help. He had not been taking medication prescribed to help him cope with his condition.
On Friday, at the urging of Harlow's family, General District Judge Louis Campbell issued an order allowing sheriff's deputies to take him into custody.
Sheriff Reed Kelly said deputies started looking for Harlow on Friday night, but were unable to locate him.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m. Saturday, family members notified authorities that Harlow was working in his garden.
Sgt. Dave Mullins and Deputy Monte Woods, two veteran officers, were dispatched to the house, just south of Buchanan on Old Hollow Road. Woods was the first to approach Harlow and asked him if they could talk.
Suddenly, Harlow grabbed a hatchet and ran at the officers, Kelly said. Mullins thought maybe he could use Mace to fend Harlow off, but the wind was blowing toward him and he was unable to spray it.
Harlow swung wildly, striking Woods in the head with the blunt side of the hatchet, knocking him to the ground and dislocating his shoulder.
Mullins stepped up and tried to fend off Harlow. He blocked one blow before Harlow knocked him to the ground.
As Harlow pulled back to deliver another blow, Woods shot him twice in the chest with his pistol, Kelly said. Harlow died at the scene.
State police were called in to investigate, but there's no hint of wrongdoing on the deputies' part, Bob Perry, assistant special agent-in-charge, said. The officers will be on paid administrative leave until they are physically and emotionally able to return to the job, Kelly said.
Bruce Harlow wept Saturday night as he remembered his father as a "good man" who believed in God and treated others with respect for most of his life.
"His family loved him," he said. "We never wanted for anything. He'd give you the shirt off his back."
But their sympathy extends to the sheriff's deputies, too.
"We hold no animosity toward the police officers," the son said. "They're family friends."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB