Top Psychiatrist Killed By Teen

As reported by CBS News

A 19-year-old man was charged Monday with murdering a prominent psychiatrist and federal health official, Montgomery County police said.

Vitali A. Davydov, of North Potomac, was believed to be the only suspect in the case after Dr. Wayne S. Fenton, 53, was found unconscious in his office Sunday after an appointment with the teen, police said. Davydov's father saw his son acting strangely outside the building after the appointment, found Fenton and called police, according to a statement from police.

In addition to seeing patients who were considered severely disturbed in his private practice, Fenton was associate director of the National Institute of Mental Health, a division of the National Institutes of Health. His death was described as devastating, not only to his friends but also for the advancement of mental health research.

"He was without question one of the nation's experts in schizophrenia," said Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. [...]

Fenton's body has been sent to the Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.

More here in this report from the Washington Post

A 19-year-old patient was charged today with the death of a nationally known psychiatrist and federal health official who was found slain in his private north Bethesda office yesterday, Montgomery County police announced.

Vitali A. Davydov, of the 10900 block of Stonecutter Place in North Potomac, was charged with the murder of Wayne S. Fenton, police said in an e-mail sent to news media. The cause of Fenton's death has not yet been determined, police added, but an autopsy was scheduled to be performed by the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore.

Fenton was seeing the patient, who was believed to be "very dangerous," because another psychiatrist was having trouble with him, said Tom Bernard, an entertainment industry executive who was a longtime friend of Fenton's.

The director of the National Institute of Mental Health, where Fenton was an associate director, called his killing particularly tragic.

"I can't convey to you the extent of this loss," said Thomas R. Insel, director of the principal federal agency responsible for mental-health research. "Not just for those of us who work at NIMH. This was a huge loss for the nation."

In addition to his NIMH work, Fenton saw patients, who included the severely disturbed, in a private practice he had in the 11500 block of Old Georgetown Road, and police said Davydov's father took him there yesterday for a scheduled appointment.

Afterward, the father spotted his son outside the building "acting strangely with blood on his pants and shirt," Montgomery County police said today in. When the father went to check on Fenton, he saw that he was unconscious and he notified police, according to the statement.

Before officers arrived about 4:50 p.m., the 19-year-old had fled on foot, police said.

After getting a description from the father, police picked up the younger Davydov at Luxmanor Road and Tilden Lane, about a block or two from Fenton's office.

In their statement today, police said Davydov is being held in the Montgomery County detention center. A bond hearing will be held Tuesday afternoon.

Those who knew Fenton described his death as devastating. He was an associate clinical director of the NIMH who was "in many ways my right hand," Insel said.
"He was without question one of the nation's experts in schizophrenia."

Fenton was described several years ago as the author of textbook chapters and more than 50 scientific papers on matters that included diagnosis, treatment, outcome and service delivery for the mental illness.

In addition to his administrative and research work, Insel said Fenton was "a very accomplished clinician" who continued to see patients one-on-one evenings and weekends.

In private practice, Insel said, Fenton worked with people "who would be categorized as psychotic" and therefore subject to a disorder that could make them dangerous if not properly treated.

Dealing with such patients is "a risk one takes" in psychiatry, Insel said.

[...]

We do not wish to be cruel, or unsympathetic to the dead. And yet we feel that we must point out that this was a top psychiatrist, with a specialty in treating people who are severely disturbed. If he could have suffered such a cruel fate, how much do they really know?