Article: Why did quiet dad turn into a maniac?

[~lostgurl~]

Why did quiet dad turn into a maniac?

September 29, 2007
By Jarrod Booker
NZ Herald

stephen_bellingham.jpg Stephen Bellingham was a builder and a father of one.

A tragic picture is emerging of how a party-pill binge and lack of sleep turned 37-year-old builder Steve Bellingham from a quiet, respectable man looking forward to setting up his own business into a hammer-wielding maniac shot dead by police.

As his shocked family struggled to understand how Mr Bellingham could undergo such a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation, police said they were working to provide a clearer picture of why one of their officers opened fire.

The exact details of what occurred remain unclear after conflicting witness reports of the shooting in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood on Wednesday night.

Mr Bellingham had reportedly smashed up a van with a golf club and broken into another vehicle with a hammer before being confronted by an officer and shot twice, including the fatal blow to the chest.

It was also revealed yesterday that Mr Bellingham was carrying a shoulder bag containing a hunting knife in a sheath when he was shot.

The bill to ban BZP, the active ingredient in party pills, passed its first reading in Parliament this month. It has now been sent to a select committee for public submissions. The minister in charge of drug policy, Jim Anderton, said there was clear evidence that the risks party pills posed were sufficient to ban them.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Bellingham's family, John Trischler, said they did not have any real indication of what happened to his nephew.

Mr Bellingham's death has puzzled his friends and family, who remember him as kind, funny, great with kids and a "good Kiwi bloke".

The question is how such a seemingly well-adjusted father, with ambitions of running his own building business, ended up going off the rails and being shot dead.

His family in the Hawkes Bay do not have any answers. "No one really seems to know what happened," said Mr Trischler. "The family are still trying to come to grips with this, and the circumstances of how it happened."

It appears Mr Bellingham, who was unmarried, had problems that had been eating away at him and came to a head in the days before his death in Stanmore Rd.

He had been taking party pills and not been sleeping for days. Friends spoke of his becoming irrational. Campbell Smythe, 21, visited him 3 1/2 hours before the shooting and said he wasn't himself. "He was just on his computer, and I had a cup of tea and pretty much left. All he said to me was that he just hadn't been sleeping and I just left it at that. "He wasn't really in the mood to be talking about it. I knew something was wrong but I didn't know he was going to flip out the way he did."

Friends said Mr Bellingham did not appear to be a big drinker or drug user and it was totally out of character that he took a hammer and a golf club and began smashing things around him on Wednesday night.

Chris Young was in his car outside his flat in Stanmore Rd sending text messages when Mr Bellingham, whom he did not know, approached him, shortly before he was shot.

Mr Young, who described him as highly agitated, was scared of what he might do. "He definitely was not in a clear frame of mind. He said to me, 'Can I have a ride?' He tried to get in the driver's-side door. I said, 'No, f*** off'."

Mr Trischler said the family would remember Mr Bellingham simply as "a great guy, a good old Kiwi type of bloke".

Canterbury district commander Sandra Manderson said: "We have spoken to the family and police are working with them. We have given them the information of what happened, and now we have to work on why it happened."

Mr Young has told the Herald Mr Bellingham charged towards the policeman with a hammer raised in the air. But Keiran Cross and Amanda Duke said they saw him with his hands by his side, apparently unarmed, and standing still when he was fired upon. Another witness, Kenneth Prior, told 3 News Mr Bellingham, a friend, might have stumbled "but he definitely didn't run towards [the policeman]".

Ms Manderson said police would go over witness statements this weekend to get a better grasp of the incident. "Different witnesses have seen different parts ... We are putting that together."

The policeman who killed Mr Bellingham had been interviewed as part of a homicide inquiry being overseen by the Police Complaints Authority. The officer would be off duty for a couple of weeks. No decision had been made to stand him down.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/...0466661&pnum=0

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Intersting article.
	Thanks for sharing that article.

[Mint boi]

man goes crazy gets shot by police officer, incidentally he had taken BZP recently. BZP MUST be to blame. I hate these stories, especially the descriptions of the deceased by his family and friends, no matter what they say NO completely stable person smashes up a car because they're on BZP... WTF

[snapper]

Sleep deprivation could, however, though how someone could stand the cumulative hangover of that much BZP is beyond SWIM. Perhaps suicide by cop was better than coming down...

[enquirewithin]

SWIM has never tried BZP because of all the negative views he has read about it, but from what he has read five nights on it would be unbearable.

[Thirdedge]

Another dose fixes the hangover in a similar fasion to alcohol. A binge leads to several days depression as opposed to 1-2 days of psysical pain from a single dose.

[23smooches]

Whether you like it or not, the BZP is to blame for this one. No sane person would do this without the aid of a mind altering substance. Being up for five days is bad enough for your psych, but being on drugs while being up for five days would drive anyone to insanity. it also didnt help that he had some unresolved personal issues.

[Alicia]

swia has used bzp, and this just seems like some one had sleep deprived psychosis brought on by endless nights on bzp. Moderation with any subtance is essential and also knowing when to call it a night is a good one too. Swia see's this a lets blame a bzp motive the details are to sketchy and does not seem to have enough information for it solely to be responsible. why would someone carry a hunting knife for such an occasion? i doubt a lot of this is, is as it reads.

[meep]

23smooches, swim thinks your wrong. Swim thinks that that is exactly the response of the air heads that read these kind of stories and believe them. Its easier to just blame a substance than to waste time understanding why the guy was on a 5 day binge in the first place.

This poor guy was already deep in something not good, just because he looked and acted normal every day doesn't mean he was on the level. That cop that went mad the other week wasn't on BZP, what was his excuse?

[23smooches]

Swims not saying that the substance is completely to blame, but it played a major role in his going over the edge like that. Its obvious that he had some problems. And in swims personal opinion, he probably wouldnt have gone criminally violent without having been on bzp. Certain drugs tend to only add to confusion and psychosis.

[theta]

Isn't it just a great coincidence for this to show up in the news just when the NZ govornment is pushing to have piperazines banned. I'm not saying that this story is a complete lie, but newspapers need to sell and politicians want to have their way.

[Zaprenz]

The whole drug situation has been flipped in complete reverse thanks to the war on drugs.

SWIM fears the legal high industry is going to literally force international governments to adopt a US style analogue law(s).

MDMA

• The more desired compound out of MDMA & BZP&Pips so a considerable amount of people would choose MDMA over BZP if given the chance.
• Subjectively more pleasant
• It's safety record compared to some prescription drugs seems on a par or better than some clinical drugs. [This is also using stats often derived from illicit and impure MDMA &/or other drugs]

1. MDMA is illegal yet how many pills are produced worldwide?!? lots! When are governments going to realise if there is demand (with MDMA it just sells itself) individuals are going to come in to supply. Basic economics. Ban does not equal prevention of use.
2. MDMA is not pure & not regulated when obtained illegally
3. Cut with Methamphetamine & other unknowns
4. People choose BZP&Pips due to legality
5. BZP&Pips, less researched, more acute nasty side effects.

The worrying trend is that in searching for compounds that are unscheduled "legal high" companies are having to find new alternatives at an ever increasing rate and use dangerous tactics like not listing ingredients.