Police: Man who stabbed dean targeted Mo. gov.

[The Northerner]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A man accused of stabbing a Kansas City college official intended to attack Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon instead and mistakenly believed he had done so, police said on Thursday.

The suspect, 22-year-old Casey Brezik, did not know Nixon and had no particularly beef with the governor, but he decided to attack him because he was a top government official, Kansas city police spokesman Darin Snapp said.

Brezik, of Raytown, is charged with two felony counts each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action. A Jackson County judge entered not guilty pleas on his behalf during a court appearance on Wednesday.

Brezik did not have an attorney in court and no attorney was listed for him on Thursday on Missouri's online court records. The public defender's office did not immediately return messages on Thursday.

Albert Dimmitt Jr., the dean of instruction at Penn Valley Community College, was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday while waiting for Nixon to arrive for a news conference about federal grants for high-speed Internet projects. Nixon was still at a Kansas City airport when the attack occurred, and the event was canceled.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_re_us/us_missouri_college_stabbing

[WillParkinson]

1. A picture of Mr. Brezik

[CurtEastPoint]

4. He is mentally ill.

Brezic was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia several years ago and had only recently enrolled at the community college. His family says Brezic has a habit of writing anti-government rants on his Facebook page. In 2007 he was committed to mental hospitals at least four times and convicted of drug possession. He wears an anarchist symbol tattoo on his arm.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/09/casey_brezik_intended_to_kill_jay_nixon.php

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Another isolated anti-government incident...

It is almost as if there some group out there stoking populist anger against the government.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Although this man truly has been diagnosed with a mental illness, the story still

says that he 'harbored anti-government views.'