Raymond Santero believed it was the end of the world, Russian agents and the FBI were plotting against him and people wanted him dead.
“You’re getting this delusional almost like paranoid sense that people are trying to kill you,” Santero, 33, of Chattanooga, said. “Just crazy stuff out of a movie. You’re hearing things, seeing things.”
Santero is a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga graduate. He has no recorded history of drug use, medical records show.
He had some bouts with anxiety and social ticks, but his mental health never affected his life in any major way until Oct. 27, 2021, he said.
In lawsuits largely dismissed because they were filed too late, Santero accused law enforcement officials and health facilities in the area of violating his civil rights by treating him like a criminal while he was in crisis.