From our Bureau of Rational Responses to Communist Repression That Are Deemed Irrational by Those Who Have Never Lived in a Communist Totalitarian Hellhole
The Cuban exile who shot up Castro, Inc.’s embassy in Washington DC four and a half years ago will be freed from prison after a judge ruled him insane. Truth be told, although what he did was wrong — insofar as his actions could have led to deaths or injuries — it would seem far from “insane” by most Cubans. His anger is understanble. Sad but true. Our anger and thirst for justice are so intense that many of us share his rage, even if we don’t condone his violence.
From El Guasintonpo (Washington Post)
A man who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to firing 32 rounds from an assault-style rifle at the Cuban Embassy in D.C. will be conditionally released after about 4½ years of incarceration and psychiatric treatment, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.
Alexander Alazo, 46, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Cuba, had recently moved with his family from northern Texas to the Harrisburg, Pa., area when he drove to Washington twice in April 2020 — the first time for what prosecutors described as a “dry run” and the second to open fire on the Cuban Embassy on 16th Street NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in the early-morning hours of April 30.
A person was recorded on video apparently firing into the front of the gated embassy, where police said Alazo shouted, “Shoot me if you want to shoot me. I’m here. I’m American. I’m Yankee,” according to court filings. Alazo tried to burn a Cuban flag, which was doused in gasoline, but couldn’t light it because it was raining, prosecutors said. D.C. police arrested him draped in an American flag, recovering a rifle lying on the sidewalk and 32 spent casings, according to plea papers.
The Cuban Embassy said that no one was injured, but seven people were inside when the shots were fired and the building sustained extensive damage to its exterior and interior, according to plea papers.
A government psychiatric expert found that Alazo was not criminally responsible at the time of the offense. With prosecutors’ assent, Alazo admitted to the allegations on April 30 this year and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to four counts, including attacking a foreign official or official premises using a deadly weapon, interstate transport of a firearm and ammunition, and damaging property belonging to or occupied by a foreign government.
A former massage therapist and Uber driver with no prior arrests for a criminal offense, Alazo told federal authorities after his arrest that he was born in Cuba and believed he was in danger from “Cubans” and criminal organizations, according to court filings. Alazo “had been hearing voices in his head telling him to protect his family from those affiliated with Cuban organized crime,” according to plea papers. He had undergone mental health treatment but left a hospital early because “he didn’t think he was that crazy,” prosecutors said.
Under federal law, people found not guilty only by reason of insanity are held until a court finds their release would not create a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person. Probation officials approved a conditional release plan for Alazo on July 26, after a U.S. Bureau of Prisons medical examiner found that any risk Alazo posed because of mental illness could be mitigated by treatment, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kacie Weston and Stuart Allen wrote to the court.
At Tuesday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson questioned Alazo’s social worker, a U.S. probation officer in Pennsylvania and Alazo’s wife before agreeing to order his release with conditions as of Oct. 15. Jackson’s seven-page order requires a specific treatment plan, that Alazo see a clinical psychiatrist near his home, that he not leave his home overnight nor central Pennsylvania without approval, and that he keep away from Cuban government establishments in the United States and their employees.
Until further court order, Alazo also will remain under supervision by probation officials, who must confirm his ongoing treatment, including if necessary by reviewing a log of his medications to be kept by his wife, a psychiatric nurse, Jackson ordered.