Teammate: Chris Craig is not dangerous, needs help
The former UTEP basketball player who allegedly threatened to blow up his daughter’s school in Utah is being held on a $25,000 cash-only bond.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office charged 35-year-old Chris Craig with Suspicion of
Threat of Terrorism and other charges.
This latest incident involving Craig has a lot of people talking about his mental health. When Craig played for UTEP, between 2002 and 2004, he was one of the most likeable young men you’d ever meet. But it appears mental illness may have changed so much about him.
“He was doing really well man,” close friend and former teammate Omar Duran told ABC-7. “I mean, I was really happy. We talked for like three hours.”
Duran said he had dinner with Craig three months ago in Phoenix and he had a hard time watching video of Craig Monday. The footage shows Craig pacing in a green tunic with his head wrapped and face masked after allegedly threatening to blow up his daughter’s school in Utah.
“The way he was walking around in that video is a lot like he was walking around my house,” Duran said. “I’d always find him with his hands behind his back with his head down and just kind of thinking.”
Three years ago, ABC-7 visited with Duran after Craig spent the summer with him in El Paso. He had been arrested in Utah for threatening Catholic and Mormom churches.
Craig shared some of his rambling writings with Duran.
When asked if he thinks Craig is dangerous, Duran replied: “He’s not dangerous. I really don’t think so. He just needs help. I don’t see him as a terrorist. I don’t see him as a threat. I know he was on meds. He told me he was on meds and he had to take them, court order. But I don’t know if he’s off of them.”
Patti Fernandez, director of the El Paso Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness told ABC-7 one in five people “struggle with a mental health condition in a given year.”
“With the right resources, you can go on with a mental health condition, life doesn’t stop,” Fernandez said. “You’d be surprised how many people work with you, side by side, who have a mental health condition.”
If you or a family member needs help with a mental illness, call NAMI at 778-5726. NAMI’s annual fundraising walk is set for this Saturday at Memorial Park.
