Police reports revealed more about the suspect accused of trying to kidnap a little girl in Crowley that was caught on camera.
A 62-year-old man who is behind bars, accused of attempting to kidnap a young girl in Crowley, has a history of mental health issues, police say.
Police say Steven Bayse, 62, is in jail for kidnapping and other charges after the parents of the girl fought back.
NBC 5 has obtained police reports from Crowley Police on calls concerning Bayse which detail a long history of mental illness and run-ins with his neighbors.
Those police reports are shedding light on his mindset at the time of the kidnapping and the years of incidents that led up to that moment.
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The most recent reports go back to February, when his neighbors accused him of tampering with their gas line and stealing mail. According to the report, they told police he was belligerent and may have mental health issues. In April, he was arrested during a traffic stop for an active warrant tied to that incident but was later released.
Several Crowley police reports go back as far as 2012, with police being called to check on him, including a time he threatened to hurt himself and made concerning statements to relatives.
Another report from 2015 alleges that Bayse was seeing people that weren’t there and was considered a danger to himself and to others.
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In several reports, his family told police he was not taking his medication for extended periods of time, despite efforts to get him to do so.
His relatives spoke anonymously to NBC 5, saying they had exhausted different measures to get him help, including into mental health treatment facilities, including court orders from a judge to take his medicine and several calls to Crowley police.
“He's paranoid schizophrenic and bipolar. When he's on his medication, he's a perfectly normal member of society functioning well. At times, he goes off his medication for reasons we are unaware of. And the longer he's off his medication, the worse he gets."
Years of incidents came to a head on Monday, when the parents of the little girl said Bayse spoke about his own daughter just before the attempted kidnapping.
"He said, ‘She's cute. That could be like my Shelby.’ That's when I thought to myself, OK – he's probably talking about a relative, daughter, or granddaughter of his,” said the little girl’s father, Carlos Ortiz.
Relatives say his real daughter is a grown adult.
"When he's off his medication, he's been living in the past. He's told me that he thinks his daughter was a baby. In reality, that's what he thought,” they said. “And he thought that she needed to be with him, that she was somewhere being hurt.”
Crowley police offered their mental health policy, which was updated in August of 2022:
"It is the policy of this Department to protect an emotionally or mentally unstable person from harming themselves, others, or property. Police work brings officers into contact with persons who are emotionally or mentally unstable. This instability may be due to any number of factors, including alcohol/drug dependency, emotional trauma, or some form of mental illness. Our primary concern in these cases is the safety and welfare of that person, the community, and the officer. When an officer has probable cause to believe that an emotionally or mentally unstable person presents an immediate threat of harm to themselves or another person, that person shall be taken into protective custody and transported to a facility where trained professionals can evaluate the emotional and mental status of that person."
A police report from 2012 shows that protocol was followed for Bayse when his family called police for another incident, but because there were no more beds available at a mental health facility, he was released from John Peter Smith Hospital.
However, his family said in the years since, they have struggled in getting more help from law enforcement on addressing their concerns.
"We want him to get help while he's in jail, we want him to pay the price for what he's done. We know he's done bad. We don’t know if he knows he’s done bad, but we hope that he gets mental help through the police department,” said his relative.
It's important to note, Bayse has not been convicted following any of those incidents.
He was held in the Tarrant County jail Thursday on charges of kidnapping, assault and evading arrest. Jail records showed he was not being represented by an attorney as of Thursday afternoon.
