Colorado Springs – The pastor of the city’s largest church questioned Monday why Memorial Hospital released a suicidal woman after a psychiatric evaluation – only a day before she shot and killed her two sons and then turned the gun on herself.
Julie Rifkin, 41, was treated at the hospital Friday. Police said that late Saturday or early Sunday, she shot Gabriel, 12, and Nathan, 13, as they slept in their beds. She then shot herself with the .38-caliber revolver. All three were shot in the head.
A friend who came by the Rifkin home at 7:45 a.m. Sunday to take the family to church found the bodies.
Julie and Gabriel Rifkin were dead at the scene. Nathan died Sunday night at Memorial Hospital.
Citing privacy laws, the hospital would not say how long Julie Rifkin was hospitalized Friday.
The Rev. Ted Haggard, pastor of the 12,000-member New Life Church where Rifkin attended and volunteered until about 10 months ago, said she was distraught over financial problems. Her husband, Don, had been laid off about a year ago from MCI and was working in South Carolina.
Haggard expressed dismay over Rifkin’s release from Memorial.
“What were they thinking?” Haggard said. “She’s bipolar, she’s under pressure. She’s ADD, she’s on medication and she’s distraught, and they send her home? They might as well have sent her to Kmart. She would have gotten better care there.”
In a prepared statement released Monday night, Don Rifkin urged people not to place blame “but offer forgiveness and blessings in the days to come.”
Memorial spokesman Chris Valentine said the hospital has a formal protocol for screening and treating patients who demonstrate a need for psychiatric health care.
He said a licensed clinical social worker with specialized mental-health training, along with a board-certified physician, use specific criteria to screen patients. Patients who do not appear to be a danger to themselves or others are discharged.
According to a 911 tape, one of Rifkin’s co-workers called the authorities at about 8 p.m. Friday, saying her friend was distraught about the loss of her temporary job on May 1 at The Navigators, a Colorado Springs-based Christian ministry, and that Rifkin had threatened to kill herself.
When the the co-worker told her to “think of your children,” Rifkin’s response was, “I want to take them with me,” according to the 911 tape.
Chris Miller, who has lived next-door to the Rifkins since they moved to the Village Seven neighborhood in 1993, said Julie Rifkin “never let on to anyone outside that front door” that she may have struggled with mental illness.
Miller said Don Rifkin told her about two years ago of his wife’s struggle with depression.
Miller said Julie Rifkin was a terrific mother, the kind who would let her boys tackle her on the front lawn.
“They’d roll around on the grass and laugh and have fun,” Miller said.
On Sunday, with police filling the normally quiet streets, Miller said she could think only of Don Rifkin getting a phone call in South Carolina.
“Oh, my God, Don, to get that information long distance.”
“I am very thankful to everyone who has prayed for us during this tragic time and welcome additional prayers,” Don Rifkin said in his statement. “I will be providing more information as the investigation unfolds.”
A funeral service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at New Life Church, 11025 Voyager Parkway, in Colorado Springs.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
