A Zimmerman man has been charged with killing a man at a mental health facility earlier this week, just a month after separate attempted murder and assault charges were filed against him in two other counties.<\/p>\n
Now, the family of 23-year-old Bruce Hayes wants to know why he had to die in an attack at a residential mental health facility in Minneapolis earlier this week.\u00a0Four others were hurt in that attack,<\/p>\n
Derek Faulkner, 31, faces charges for that attack<\/a> at a People Incorporated mental health facility in Minneapolis, as well as two earlier ones in Sherburne and Anoka counties in August and September.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Some want to know why he wasn\u2019t already in the state\u2019s secured mental health hospital in St. Peter.\u00a0Now, he\u2019s in the Hennepin County Jail awaiting trials in all three counties.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a problem that\u2019s been plaguing Minnesota for well over a decade,\u201d said Richard Stanek, former Hennepin County Sheriff.<\/p>\n He\u2019s spent years talking about the problems a lack of mental health care options has forced into the law enforcement community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe local county jails become the de facto largest mental health institution in the state of Minnesota,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Though he didn\u2019t work any of the cases involving Faulkner, he says the story is a familiar one to him.<\/p>\n A struggling defendant, in this case Faulkner, who was out of jail and whose mother ended up going to a judge to get him help. The judge agreed Faulkner was legally Mentally Ill, meaning the person\u2019s behavior could end up harming themselves or others.<\/p>\n That\u2019s different from Mentally Ill & Dangerous<\/a>,\u00a0a legal determination that means the person has already physically hurt or tried to hurt someone else and is expected to act out the same way again.<\/p>\n Under state law, when a judge commits someone as Mentally Ill & Dangerous, they\u2019re supposed to go to the state\u2019s secured mental hospital in St. Peter.<\/p>\n But Stanek says it\u2019s hard to find beds there, or anywhere else with the state.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a place to restore their competency,\u201d Stanek said. \u201cSo they come back before the court, get cured\u2026and get back to some sense of stability and back to their life.\u201d<\/p>\n A state task force on reforming Minnesota\u2019s Mentally Ill & Dangerous civil commitment process<\/a> released a report last spring calling for a number of changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The recommendations included establishing a secure, state-run facility for observing patients who are undergoing the legal commitment process and helping them get stabilized before they\u2019re committed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The report also suggested developing community-based locked settings for individuals requiring 24-hour supervision.<\/p>\n \u201cThe legislators\u2026they need to appropriate the proper funding, and then demand that the state does what it is that they\u2019re supposed to do with the money they\u2019ve allocated,\u201d said Stanek.<\/p>\n Family questions how suspect ended up at facility<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t deserve it. Our family doesn\u2019t deserve it, and I just want to be here to get justice for Bryce and our family,\u201d said Tamirica Hayes, Bryce\u2019s stepmother.<\/p>\n The Hayes family and their attorneys spoke publicly Friday for the first time since Bryce\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cBryce has never been mean to another person in his life, and there is nothing he could have done to deserve this,\u201d said Kenya Taylor-Hayes, Bryce\u2019s mother. \u201cHe is the most gentle person. He is respectful, and he wouldn\u2019t hurt a fly, even if it landed on his food. He deserves to be remembered for those things.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor-Hayes said the family trusted Nancy Page Crisis Residence to keep their son safe while he received mental health treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hopes were that my son was safe and protected and receiving the care that he needed while he was there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She described the attack that killed her son as horrific.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a very gory, horrific incident. This was not table talk,\u201d Taylor-Hayes said.<\/p>\n The family said Bryce was attacked in his sleep with a hammer and fire extinguisher.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was equivalent to what you would see in the Chainsaw Massacre,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The family said Bryce, who was on the autism spectrum, had been living at the facility for about three weeks while receiving treatment for depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as nice as you can be. He just loved to eat. Loved his family,\u201d said Frederick Hayes, Bryce\u2019s father.<\/p>\n Family members described Bryce as a loving son, brother and former football player. After moving from Atlanta to Minnesota with his mother two years ago, they said he developed a love for the state\u2019s parks, lakes and outdoor activities.<\/p>\n \u201cBryce loved music and he loved video games,\u201d Taylor-Hayes said. \u201cWhat he loved most about the Twin Cities in Minnesota is the parks and the lakes and just having that ability to sit outside and take in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n The family said Bryce was days away from a major milestone: moving into his own home.<\/p>\n \u201cBryce was scheduled to move into his first independent housing program, which would have been a small residential home in Eagan,\u201d Taylor-Hayes said. \u201cHe would have moved in on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she then had to explain to what would have been her son\u2019s new housing provider that Bryce had been killed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very sad for me when that manager there called me Wednesday morning saying that Bryce had missed his orientation on Tuesday. I had to let her know that Bryce was no longer with us and had, in fact, been murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the family and their attorneys say they are looking for answers about how Derek Duane Faulkner, who was facing attempted murder and assault charges in separate cases before the attack, ended up at the facility.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe [he] should not have been at that facility,\u201d attorney Chris Stewart said.<\/p>\n Stewart said the family\u2019s questions center on staffing, supervision and safety measures at the residence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want answers about how this tragedy occurred,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe have questions about the staffing there. How was this not prevented, and how was help not rendered earlier that could have saved such a sweet and polite young man\u2019s life?\u201d<\/p>\n The family said two representatives from People Incorporated visited Bryce in the ICU Monday while he remained on life support, though relatives said they still have significant questions about what happened inside the facility.<\/p>\n People Incorporated<\/p>\n State records show the Minnesota Department of Human Services reviewed 18 critical incident reports involving five People Incorporated facilities before issuing a correction order in February 2026. The order cited multiple late-reported incidents across those facilities, including a Dec. 25, 2025 incident at Nancy Page Crisis Residence.<\/p>\n DHS said the 2025 report found no issues at the time with People Incorporated\u2019s facilities outside of a late report violation:<\/p>\n \u201cThe 2025 critical incident report referenced in the correction order was submitted to DHS eleven days after the incident occurred at the program. DHS did not identify any resident-safety, staffing, supervision, or operational concerns related to that incident beyond a late reporting violation. The requirement in Minn. Stat. Section 245I.13<\/a>\u00a0is for critical incident reports to be submitted to DHS within ten days of learning of the incident. Information contained in the critical incident report is nonpublic under Minn. Stat. Section 13.46 subd. 3 paragraph (a)<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Following Faulkner\u2019s alleged actions at the Nancy Page program, however, DHS says a maltreatment investigation is now ongoing<\/p>\n \u201cBryce Hayes\u2019 death at Nancy Page is a heartbreaking tragedy. DHS remains committed to ensuring that providers deliver services in a safe environment.]<\/p>\n There is an open maltreatment investigation at the Nancy Page program.\u00a0We are unable to provide further details while an investigation is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Homicide Investigation<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Kamaria Braye<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Mental Illness<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Pilar Pedraza<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Zimmerman man has been charged with killing a man at a mental health facility earlier this week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,260145,260146,1906,6928,6623,260147,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-790158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-homicide-investigation","tag-kamaria-braye","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-illness","tag-mentalhealth","tag-pilar-pedraza","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}