DETROIT — A northern Michigan man accused of stabbing 11 people Saturday at a Walmart near Traverse City was previously accused of digging up a grave in a Petoskey cemetery and trying to remove the casket, court records show.

The criminal case against Bradford Gille offers a fuller picture of the mental health issues ― including a history of talking about killing people ― and legal problems of a man accused of going on a rampage at Walmart and stabbing random people.

Emmet County court records and interviews help illustrate one of the more lurid contacts Gille had during a nearly 20-year period of alleged criminality that led his mother to seek help and raise awareness about Gille's mental health problems, including paranoid schizophrenia, before Saturday's attack. The case also shows how Gille escaped severe consequences that could have kept him in prison for more than a decade.

Gille was charged in 2016 with disinterring and mutilating dead bodies and destroying tombs after being accused of using a shovel and sledgehammer to break into a grave at Greenwood Cemetery, the 105-acre resting place of approximately 16,000 people in Petoskey.

The alleged crimes were fresh on the mind of Karl Crawford, the cemetery superintendent who has worked at Greenwood Cemetery for 65 years, after learning Gille was arrested Saturday and accused of the Walmart stabbings.

"It was a very sad situation for him and his family, and now for 11 other families," Crawford told The Detroit News on Monday.

The grave incident happened on April 17, 2016. A Petoskey officer arrived at the cemetery following a reported grave robbery. Crawford, the superintendent, showed the officer a gravesite of a man who died two months earlier.

"It appeared that someone had removed all the dirt around the vault and attempted to gain access to the casket since there was a large hole in the vault from where someone had tried to enter it," according to a Petoskey Public Safety affidavit filed in Emmet County Circuit Court. "The cement was broken, and it appeared that the headstone from another grave was removed from its resting place and used to smash the vault."

A few hours later, the officer was contacted by an Emmet County Sheriff's deputy who had stopped Gille in a white van. After the traffic stop, Gille mentioned how the water table at Greenwood Cemetery had been broken and mentioned a sledgehammer, according to the affidavit.

Gille was allowed to leave because the deputy did not know about the cemetery vandalism at the time.

Later, investigators traced Gille to a nearby Super 8 Motel but he had checked out by the time officers arrived.

Officers called Gille's father, Chris Gille. He told investigators his son had called him the previous night and said "(Bradford Gille) had just bought a shovel and was going to the cemetery to dig (his father) out of the grave," according to the affidavit.

Investigators found Bradford Gille a few hours later parked in his white van near the Emmet County Jail. Gille was questioned by investigators and admitted digging up a grave at Greenwood Cemetery, the affidavit reads.

Gille said "he had dug up a grave in the Greenwood Cemetery, broke a hole into the burial vault using a sledgehammer that he had stolen from Home Depot," according to the affidavit. "(Gille) stated he dug up the grave because the person was buried alive, but that he was mistaken about the gravesite and did not know who was buried there."

Gille also admitted overturning grave stones "because he was angry that they were burying people alive," the affidavit reads.

Gille was arrested and involuntarily committed at Havenwyck Hospital in Auburn Hills for a few weeks. While there, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder "type 1 ... manic with severe psychotic features," court records show.

"He stated he was the Antichrist and digging a grave prior to admission," his psychiatrist, Yatinder Singhal, wrote in a court filing. "He stated he wanted to take the body out and see if there was blood on it.

"He has a long history of mental illness," the psychiatrist added. "He is talking about ghosts. He is suspicious and argumentative. Talking about killing people."

Gille was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia about 26 years ago, his mother, Beverly Gille, told the Petoskey News-Review in 2007. She talked about her son’s struggle with a serious mental health condition that, according to the Mayo Clinic, can cause hallucinations, delusions and lead to violent behavior.

She recounted Bradford Gille’s numerous arrests for misdemeanor offenses that court records show later escalated into more serious crimes.

A licensed psychologist, M. Judith Block, examined Gille after he was arrested.

"Mr. Gille's conduct was bizarre and grounded in his delusional beliefs that he needed to rescue people whose brains remained alive and able to sense pain as they suffocated underground," Block wrote. "He was compelled to aid these individuals."

She concluded Gille was mentally ill while at the cemetery and not criminally responsible.

At the time, Gille faced felonies that could have sent him to prison for 15 years. But he was acquitted and found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2017, Emmet County Circuit Court records show.

The ordeal stands out during Crawford's long career at Greenwood Cemetery.

"We never had anybody try to damage a (burial) vault like he did," Crawford, the cemetery superintendent, told The Detroit News. "We've had kids come and tip over markers."

Cemetery staff tried to keep the incident quiet to protect the family of the man whose grave was disturbed during the incident, Crawford said.

"We pride ourselves on the sanctity of the cemetery and keeping it clean and neat and a place people would appreciate coming to and visiting loved ones," Crawford said. "It's not the kind of thing we like to have happen."

In the Walmart case, Gille is accused of stabbing strangers late Saturday afternoon after Emmet County Sheriff's deputies had tried since Friday to find and detain him.

Emmet County Sheriff’s deputies were armed with a court order and hunting for Gille but could not find the homeless man in time to prevent the attack.

The deputies were armed with an order from Emmet County Probate Court following concerns about Gille's mental health. The order was based on a petition filed by the Petoskey Department of Public Safety.

Mackinaw Police, meanwhile, were called twice this year regarding complaints about Gille, although each time there was no reason for action beyond responding to the calls, Police Chief Todd Woods said.

“The first time was in January, when he was sleeping in a public bathroom,” Woods said. “We asked him to leave, and he left with no incident, and we never heard from him until recently.”

According to Woods, officers were called to a grocery store this month after getting a report about a dispute involving a man with a knife — Gille.

“It ended up not being the case,” Gille said. “What happened was, an employee looked out the window and said (Gille) took out a knife and was looking at it, but he didn’t threaten anyone with it, and he took it out after he’d left the store, and wasn’t near anyone.”

Woods said possession of the knife didn’t violate any laws.

“In both cases, he complied, he was polite, and there was never any issue,” Woods said. “From what I understand, he was homeless, but from what we saw he was harmless.”

The News has filed a Freedom of Information request with the Mackinaw Police Department seeking the reports of the two incidents.

The manager of the IGA store said he was busy with a shipment, and could not immediately discuss the incident Monday.

_____

©2025 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.