81-Year-Old Nursing Home Resident Charged in the Murder of A 76-Year-Old Resident

Failure to adequately supervise and monitor changes in the behavior of residents and to prevent acts of aggression and violence toward others may result in provision of substandard quality of care and the submission of false claims

Compliance Perspective – Aggression and Violence

Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Administrator will review policies and procedures involving behavior assessments of residents and adequate supervision of their interactions with others, with particular attention given to those with dementia and/or a history of violence.

Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will ensure that staff are trained to provide adequate supervision and to respond in a timely manner to changes in behavior between residents.

Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing should personally conduct an audit to review and evaluate behavior assessments of all residents, with a special focus on those with dementia and/or a history of violence, and to monitor their interactions with other residents.

RESIDENT TO RESIDENT AGGRESSION

After first being charged with attempted murder, a resident in a Connecticut nursing home has now been charged with murder. The victim was taken to a hospital after the man’s roommate called for help. She died the next day.

The female resident was in a wheelchair in the accused man’s room when he is believed to have walked behind her chair, grabbed her scarf, and strangled her with it.

The accused man told the police that he and the female resident were in a relationship but had an argument earlier that day. He indicated to the police that he thought she was taking advantage of him, so he began thinking of how to kill her.

“She had to die, she was evil,” is what the man said to the employee who responded to the roommate’s call for help.  The employee told the police that the man was holding the scarf around the woman’s neck and yanking it purposefully. He said the man had “a look on his face like he was determined to do what he was doing.”

Initially, a judge set the man’s bond at $1 million, but after the woman died, it was increased to $1.5 million. The public defender who was present at the bond hearing indicated that the accused man has dementia.

The accused resident has a criminal record dating back to a 1966 conviction for bank robbery.