Local News in Brief : Mental Care Ordered in Ax Attack on Family

A Saugus man who was convicted of attacking and wounding his 7-year-old son and his wife with a hatchet in June was sentenced Thursday to three years’ probation and ordered to undergo psychiatric care.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew imposed the sentence on the man, Randall William Schroeder, 39, who was found guilty of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon but found not guilty on two counts of attempted murder.

Schroeder’s wife, Elizabeth Schroeder, 32, told Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies that the family was spending a quiet evening at home on June 14 when she heard her son scream, a sheriff’s spokesman said. She ran upstairs to find her husband striking their son in the head with a hatchet, the spokesman said. When she intervened, Randall Schroeder struck her then began striking himself, sheriff’s Deputy Steve Lee said.

Randall Schroeder, who was on medication and receiving psychiatric care at the time, later told authorities that he did not know what came over him but that he felt he had to kill his family to keep them from becoming evil, sheriff’s Sgt. James Rupsa said. Schroeder tried to reach his minister and a psychiatrist on the weekend of the attack but was unsuccessful, Rupsa said.

Schroeder and his wife suffered minor injuries but their son was seriously injured and underwent surgery, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Schroeder’s attorney, Thomas F. Kascoutas, said Schroeder will remain indefinitely in a Los Angeles County residential psychiatric treatment program.