Tuesday’s killing spree in Alger hit close to home for Burlington resident Patricia Rothschiller.

Her 32-year-old son suffers from schizophrenia and found himself in an 11-hour standoff with police in September 2001 after he attempted to attack his neighbors.

According to court documents, the son slashed the tires of a neighbor’s car, confronted people in the neighborhood saying “I am God and this is my world” and that he was “going to kill everyone.”

Rothschiller said her son was lucky — he didn’t hurt anyone. After he barricaded himself in a house, police forced their way in and arrested him.

But when Isaac L. Zamora, 28, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of killing six people, including a Skagit County deputy, and wounding four others, Rothschiller suspected that another person with severe mental problems had not received the help he needed.

The Tuesday slayings prompted the state Department of Corrections to examine Zamora’s criminal history. The department will also provide information to Gov. Christine Gregoire, who requested a review of the case.

Gregoire asked Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs President Colleen Wilson and Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Art Curtis to co-chair the review team and provide the governor with a report within 10 days.

Rothschiller could relate to the anguished statement of Dennise Zamora, the suspect’s mother, who has complained that Washington law makes it very difficult for families to have a mentally disturbed loved one committed for evaluation and treatment.

“There’s people who are dead because our laws allow mentally ill people to make decisions they can’t make,” Dennise Zamora said Thursday.

Zamora has said she tried unsuccessfully for years before the incident to have Isaac Zamora committed due to his mental problems.

“If I tied him up and put him in a trailer, who would get arrested?” she said.

Although Isaac was “living in his own reality,’’ his mother said she was still surprised he could be capable of such violence.

“He’s never ever been aggressive to people,’’ she said. “His aggression has always been taken out on inanimate objects.’’

According to state law, a certified evaluator must determine if a patient shows “imminent likelihood of serious harm,” to themselves or others or be “gravely disabled” to be involuntarily committed.

“They treat you like something bad has to happen before they help you,” Rothschiller said.

In the case of Rothschiller’s son, she said she called multiple counselors and explored several avenues for treatment, but most “gave him a bottle of pills and sent him on his way.”

Zamora moved in and out of the courts since he stole a gun from his parents at age 16, with about 50 different cases found in Washington courts. In several cases, Zamora was sentenced to community supervision and counseling. In one case in 2003, he was charged with third-degree assault during a stay at the North Sound Evaluation and Treatment Center.

Zamora bit a staff member who tried to restrain him.

He was just a few weeks away from a mental health evaluation before Tuesday’s killing spree.

He was arrested in December on charges of cocaine possession. He pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to six months jail time, a year of community supervision and a mental health evaluation. He was released Aug. 6.

By Tuesday, he had met with his community supervisor twice and was working to schedule a mental health evaluation, though he had to find a way to pay for it. Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis said Zamora was working with a community supervisor to find the money, and the plan was to get help from the Department of Social and Health Services.

Lewis said Tuesday that there were no immediate “red flags” in Zamora’s case files. Lewis said before Tuesday, Zamora was considered high risk to commit another crime, but not a violent crime.

The department is reviewing the case to see if there were any problems with his case or holes in the system.

Mental health advocates point at Tuesday’s violence as an indicator that the law or the system need to be changed.

Marti Wall, president of the Skagit County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), said parents like Rothschiller and Dennise Zamora live with three basic fears every day: that their child will kill or injure someone, that their child will commit suicide or that their child will disappear.

Wall said families have few options because their opinion about a loved one’s mental state is not factored during involuntary commitment evaluations.

“We live with the person, we know them better than anyone else, we know when things are askew,” Wall said. “A person in crisis can still manage — in a few minutes they can pull themselves together, but that doesn’t mean they’re not gravely ill.”

NAMI gave Washington a “D” grade on its mental health system in 2006, based on the availability of care and the funding stream. Washington has 516 beds designated for psychiatric in-patient care. According to NAMI, Washington had $553 million in state money for mental health in 2006. The United States on the whole also received a D, and no state received an A grade.

Wall doesn’t blame the system as much as two key phrases in Washington state law — “imminent likelihood of serious harm” and “gravely disabled.” She said the words “imminent” and “gravely” restrict evaluators too much, and prevent families and evaluators from committing people who are severely disabled even if they do not show an immediate threat.

“I would love to see the word “imminent” struck,” Wall said. “(And) I would like to broaden the definition of ‘gravely ill.’”

The law limits evaluators and psychiatric care centers from detaining a patient unless they’re threatening to hurt themselves or someone else within 24 hours.

“That is the way our system is set up,” said Chuck Benjamin, director of North Sound Mental Health Administration. “If they don’t agree to services and they’re not detainable under the law, there is not much we can do.”

Skagit Valley Hospital operates a psychiatric care center, and takes involuntary commitments. Most are admitted through emergency care. A “designated mental health professional” — who typically has at least a master’s degree — evaluates patients and can allow the hospital to involuntarily detain a patient for 72 hours.

After that, the care facility must petition the court for longer treatment, first for 14 days, then for 90. Occasionally, facilities can hold patients for 180 days.

At any point if the detainment is not approved, the patient is discharged unless he or she volunteers to remain in the center’s care.

Danielle Kizer, medical director for Skagit Valley Hospital’s care center, said the process is meant to prevent patients from being inappropriately or forcefully detained without a procedure.

“This is a balance between someone’s civil rights of freedom versus their medical rights for treatment,” Kizer said.

Wolfgang Klamp, Chief Operating Officer for Cascade Psychiatric Services, which staffs psychiatric care centers at Skagit Valley Hospital and United General Hospital, said between public safety and civil rights, “the pendulum has swung too far.”

Breaches of public safety as seen Tuesday are inevitable without more funding and support for psychiatric care, he said.

“I’m a firm believer in individual rights, but I’m also a firm believer in personal responsibility,” Klamp said. “There needs to be some mechanism in place that address those issues.”

Gordon Weeks contributed to this report. Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .