State Report Clears Taunton Hospital After Stabbing Rampage

A Taunton hospital and a contracted mental health worker have been cleared of wrongdoing for the way they treated an apparently suicidal man who hours after he was discharged went on a rampage that left two people dead.

The multi-agency report released late Monday by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services found that a licensed social worker contracted by Morton Hospital who evaluated 28-year-old Arthur DaRosa was "thorough and comprehensive."

The report didn't identify DaRosa by name, but circumstances matched the DaRosa case.

DaRosa went to the hospital on May 9, after his family said he was making violent threats. He was discharged the next morning.

Authorities say he then fatally stabbed an 80-year-old woman in her home and a 56-year-old teacher having dinner with his wife in a Silver City Galleria mall restaurant in Taunton. Five others were injured in the rampage.

DaRosa was fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff's deputy at the mall.

After the attack, DaRosa's family criticized the care he received. "They didn't treat him for what his sickness was or his mental illness. They treated him for something else," Liz DaRosa, his aunt, told reporters after the incident.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom