RO: Gunman Kills 8 at a North Carolina Nursing Home

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/us/30shooting.html?hpw

I’m glad to say this time that the piece of shit didn’t off himself or get killed by police. I’m genuinely interested in why a “seemingly” normal person can go off their rocker and do something as shitty as this. What a fucking scumbag. The lowest common denominator. I hope his cancer kills him slowly and painfully in a dark, cinder-blocked cell. If he has any shred of dignity, he will tell his story. What he was thinking, and why that switch went on for him to commit this act. What a punk-ass bitch. People’s Gammies n’ shit. Damn.

This is terrible, but I have to say that this

is somewhat refreshing to read. Usually you read something like “He was a nice guy, quiet, kept to himself.”

To live a good long life is a good thing, but how sad to spend your last moments in terror and pain.

Shooting sprees in general are bizarre, but at least you can sort of understand why a deeply disturbed person might shoot up his place of work, or even his school. But a nursing home? Who the fuck shoots up a nursing home? Really really weird.

Considering the line about him “going away”, I’m assuming he was trying for suicide-by-cop. Whether he picked that place at random or assumed that his choice of target would bring a whole ton of pissed-off cops or what, I don’t know.

Well, they did manage to work that angle in as well-- I think it’s mandatory:

“–and then offer to kill them for trespassing. Right neighborly of him.”
I think the real question here is why none of the nursing home residents immediately returned fire. Possibly they were still in the process of drawing their weapons. Arthritis is a bitch.

My outrage is just a bit more than recreational on this one. One of the patients killed was a cousin of my grandmother’s and the incident had my sister trapped in lockdown in the ER for most of the day. From what I understand, he had no apparent connection to the nursing home, any of the patients, or any of the relatives of patients, or any of the employees. The guy just fucking flipped it.

From here:

I’m very sorry for your loss.

Thanks Bricker. I had not seen any news today that gave any further details than they had last evening when they had no connections.

Curiously, the injured cop who took this guy down had the same last name as one of the elderly victims. Can’t help but wonder if there’s any relation.