Why do normal people snap like this?

[Mosca]

Ex-banker kills wife, son

This happened a couple miles away from where I live, in a more rural area.

I know this guy, Not well, but I know him. I met him at a party, we chit-chatted business. I saw him in the bank every now and then and said hello. My wife knows him, my dad's girlfriend knows him, and I know people who know him really well. I know people who worked with him.

I don't get it. Obviously, whatever held this family together exploded in rage. But why kill?

[LambertIsGod58]

Wish I had the answers....I"d be a rich man. But I know what you mean...it's very sad! How about the sh*tbag who threw his infant child over the 30ft overpass the other day? I'd like for every state in the Union to establish "beating to death" as a new alternative method for the death penalty. I'd take it on for free....

[GBMelBlount]

I'm Speechless. I may sound callous but if the LIG58 "beat the shit out of these *******s" approach would save innocent lives. I would consider it as a deterrent.

[LambertIsGod58]

Saving lives or the punishment fitting the crime....makes no difference to me.

[Mosca]

Yeah.

Sometimes it's psychosis, and sad as that is, it's explainable. But this case, it seems like it was rage. I think he did it, without killing himself as well, out of rage. They were riding him about losing his job and he flipped. It's just guessing, but they probably rode him for years.

I guess with the marital and financial problems, and being 62 years old, he figured that there was no future beyond living in a shelter, and that would validate their assertions that he was a failure; but he made it 62 years. That's gotta count for something.

[Michael Keller]

It is called Sin nature. That is why one of the first stories of the bible is about Cain killing Able. We all have it on our potential but fortunately very few go to this extreme. If I had to guess there was some evidence in this man's attitude or behavior to indicate violent behavior. I know people who I believe are capable of violence and once you reach a certain level in a violent act a person can lose total control of self. Then rage takes over and in some cases the perpetuator does not even remember commiting the act of violence. I believe violence all starts in the heart and that is where it is needs to be corrected and stopped.

[Rhee Rhee]

Originally Posted by Mosca

Ex-banker kills wife, son

This happened a couple miles away from where I live, in a more rural area.

I know this guy, Not well, but I know him. I met him at a party, we chit-chatted business. I saw him in the bank every now and then and said hello. My wife knows him, my dad's girlfriend knows him, and I know people who know him really well. I know people who worked with him.

I don't get it. Obviously, whatever held this family together exploded in rage. But why kill?

when i first saw the title i was thinking snapping like with your fingers...

but anyway...

i too had a friend and when we met his family they were great people! then one day the wife decides to burn down their house and drown herself in a lake... verry sad

ps. the kids were OK thank god..

[revefsreleets]

It's our "animal nature". We try to quell it, but it's always there, buried deep, and for most, we never go back there. But we evolved from animals that killed, and it is and always will be part of our nature.

I think recognizing that it is actually part of our genetic make-up is one of the reasons that we are able to turn away from it. This guy....I don't know...he lost touch for a second and that's all it took.

[83-Steelers-43]

Going by his brother's comments, I'm not exactly sure if this guy or anybody else related to that family would be considered "normal", but he did snap...

Six Dead After Man Opens Fire at Missouri Council Meeting; Gunman Killed by Police
Friday, February 08, 2008

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — Ten days after losing a federal lawsuit against this St. Louis suburb he insisted harassed him, a gunman stormed a council meeting and opened fire, killing two police officers and three city officials.

The gunman, identified as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, critically injured the city's mayor and wounded a reporter Thursday night before law enforcers fatally shot him.

"The only way that I can put into context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people, the government that was putting torment and strife into his life," Thornton's brother, Gerald Thornton, told St. Louis' KMOV-TV.

Tracy Panus, a St. Louis County Police spokeswoman, said the names of the victims would not be released until a news conference Friday morning. But the wounded included Mayor Mike Swoboda, who was in critical condition late Thursday in the intensive-care unit of St. John's Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur, hospital spokesman Bill McShane said. Another victim, Suburban Journals newspaper reporter Todd Smith, was in satisfactory condition, McShane said.

Panus said the gunman killed one officer outside City Hall, then walked into the council chambers, shot another and continued pulling the trigger. A witness said the gunman yelled "Shoot the mayor!" as he fired shots in the chambers, hitting Swoboda.

Missouri City Council Shooting Janet McNichols, a reporter covering the meeting for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, told the newspaper the meeting had just started when the shooter rushed in and opened fire with at least one weapon. He started yelling about shooting the mayor while walking around and firing, hitting police Officer Tom Ballman in the head, she said.

The shooter then went after Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, who was sitting in front of Swoboda, and shot Yost in the head, McNichols said.

She also said the shooter fired at City Attorney John Hessel, who tried to fight off the attacker by throwing chairs. The shooter then moved behind the desk where the council sits and fired more shots at council members.

The newspaper quoted McNichols as saying Swoboda, and council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr also were hit. She identified the gunman as Charles Thornton, whom she knows from covering the council.

Thornton was often a contentious presence at council meetings; he had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in May 2006.

Most of his ire was directed at the mayor and Yost, McNichols said.

Thornton was well-known at City Hall, often making outrageous comments at public meetings, according to the weekly Webster-Kirkwood Times.

The newspaper quoted Swoboda as saying in June 2006 that Thornton's contentious remarks over the years created "one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service."

Swoboda's comments came during a council meeting attended by Thornton two weeks after the man was forcibly removed from the chambers. The mayor said at the time that the council considered banning Thornton from future meetings but decided against it.

Thornton said during the meeting he had been issued more than 150 tickets.

When allowed to speak during one meeting, he approached the podium with a posterboard with a picture of a donkey and began making harassing remarks about Swoboda.

In a federal lawsuit stemming from his arrests during two meetings just weeks apart, Thornton, representing himself, insisted that Kirkwood officials violated his constitutional rights to free speech by barring him from speaking at the meetings.

But a judge in St. Louis tossed out the suit Jan. 28, writing that "any restrictions on Thornton's speech were reasonable, viewpoint neutral, and served important governmental interests."

Gerald Thornton told KMOV the legal setback may have been his brother's final straw. "He has (spoken) on it as best he could in the courts, and they denied all rights to the access of protection and he took it upon himself to go to war and end the issue," he said.

Kirkwood is about 20 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis. City Hall is in a quiet area filled with condominiums, eateries and shops, not far from a dance studio and train station.

The police department's chaplain said law enforcers from several agencies were anguished over the shootings.

"They're all just so sad, shocked by this," said Father Robert Osborne of St. Peter Catholic Church. "This doesn't happen in Kirkwood."

Despite its reputation locally for serenity, Kirkwood has grappled in recent years with crimes that brought it unwanted attention.

Down the street from City Hall is the Imo's pizzeria once managed by Michael Devlin, who kidnapped 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 and held him for four years before authorities rescued him in January 2007. Also rescued was Ben Ownby, another teenager Devlin abducted just days before Devlin's arrest.

Those crimes got Devlin life terms on state charges, as well as 170 years behind bars on federal charges that he made pornography.

City Hall also is about a block from a park now named for former Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee, who was a 43-year-old father of three when he was slain in 2005 by a man who witnesses said blamed police for the death of his 12-year-old half-brother two hours earlier.

Kevin Johnson was convicted in November of first-degree murder and last week was sentenced to death.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,329767,00.html

[83-Steelers-43]

"The only way that I can put into context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people, the government that was putting torment and strife into his life," Thornton's brother, Gerald Thornton, told St. Louis' KMOV-TV.

The shooter's mother stated it was "an act of God, like a storm or tornado"...."he was pushed too far".

See, there was a reason. Since they put it like that, now I see why he shot six innocent people. Completely understandable. His brother and her son is the victim here.

At least the police took him out.