My neighbor killed his kids...

KC10Chief · 02-25-2008, 06:57 PM

Wow. I took off work around 11am today since it was such a nice day, and headed out for a few hours on my motorcycle. I was almost home around 4pm, but couldn't get on to Tinker AFB where I live in military housing. I went to another gate where I was able to get on to the base, but traffic was backed up. It took me another hour to get home. I called my wife on the cell phone, and she was saying that the school was on lock down and that the cops were outside and told her to stay inside with the doors locked. She said that some guy down the street was holding his family hostage. Wow. So, I parked my bike a few streets over and was able to get to the back of my house on a back sidewalk.

Turns out, some guy, who was in the Air Force, was arguing with his wife. I'm guessing that she was leaving him. Anyways, he pulls a gun and starts shooting. He shot and killed both of his kids (aged four and nine), shot his wife, and then shot and killed himself. The wife is the only one that survived it. I don't know the guy personally, but my son knew the 8 year old. My son is 9 and plays and goes to school with the older kid that died. All the kids ride their bikes around my cul-de-sac here and always ask about my bus. Really a sad day around here. Here's a news link to the story. You all might have seen it on CNN.
http://www.koco.com/news/15405413/detail.html

Buster · 02-25-2008, 08:02 PM

Man Matt we are so sorry to hear about that. We "rescued" our Grandsons from a crazy homelife everytime I hear about this kind of thing I am thankful that we have them now. Take care of that youngun it's got to wear on him. We will mention it in our prayers. Be sure and bring your son to the get together, I'll have a 9 and a 10 year old there.
Sincerly,
Dave

timbuk · 02-25-2008, 11:12 PM

i was really hoping that was another one of your witty posts really sorry to hear that our thoughts go to your neiborhood timbuk

bbkid · 02-25-2008, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timbuk

i was really hoping that was another one of your witty posts really sorry to hear that our thoughts go to your neiborhood timbuk

^^ i'll second that, i was hoping it was just an attention getting title to your thread. situations like thiat just make me wonder what the hell id wrong with our society sometimes. that sort of thing happens entirely too much (frankly once is more than i want to hear though). too much bad news as is in this day and age!

KC10Chief · 02-26-2008, 07:12 PM

Well, the older kid was a 9 year old girl, and the younger one was a 4 year old boy. My son knew the girl. She was in his class and they have played together ever since kindergarten. He's having a hard time understanding it. He asked me last night if the dad shot his kids on purpose. I told him yes. He then asked what the kids did to make their dad mad enough to shoot them. What a sad sad question. I told him that the kids didn't do anything wrong and that the dad was a bad person. I don't know what is or was going through his mind. I have quite a few guns in the house (locked up in a safe), and he knows that. I just had to explain to him that there was nothing in the world that he could ever do to make me mad enough to hurt him or his sister. I don't think he was worried about that, but you never know. It's hard to explain to your kid why another dad killed his kids.

I didn't know the guy personally. Never talked to him. But apparently, he and his wife recently divorced. On valentines day to be exact. The wife had filed a restraining order on him at that time because he had repeatedly threatened to kill the kids if she left him. He even at one point told the 4 year old to tell his mom not to leave him so that daddy wouldn't have to kill him. Sick sick sick. But apparently, the court threw out the restraining order a few days ago and the kids were allowed to go back to their dad. It sounded like he had it all planned out. The mom shows up to pick up the kids. He used a taser on her, but she managed to get away and ran outside and called the cops. That's when the shooting started. The little boy was shot two times, the little girl was shot 5 times, and naturally, the dad shot himself once. The sheriff said that it looked like the children died instantly and didn't suffer. The media was allowed on base today and they're pretty annoying if you ask me. What's more annoying is the people that talk to them. They keep saying that this guy had post traumatic stress disorder since he just got back from Iraq. Seriously though, the guy was a computer technician for the Air Force. I know lots of Air Force people that go to Iraq. They never ever leave the gate or go anywhere near the fence. Not the computer tech's anyways. He sat inside and fixed people's E-mail accounts all day or something like that. Saying he had PTSD was ridiculous. I think he was just an evil person. I have a friend whose wife worked with this guy. I was talking to him yesterday before they even released the name. He said his wife knew who it was right away when she first heard about the shooting. Makes me wonder what's been going on at work with this guy. Anyways, it's just a really sad situation. It hits hard when it's close to home like this. I drive right past this house on my way home. Still cops and investigators out there right now. There's quite a few windows smashed out, but I think that happened when they raided the house.

Elliot Naess · 02-27-2008, 02:13 AM

The human mind can be struck by injury or illness in unpredictable ways. The worst is sometimes when a troubled mind goes undiagnosed and untreated for a long time. Sounds like this may have happened with that man. An evil development, for sure.

Roasting8 · 02-27-2008, 09:41 AM

Matt, I'm sorry to hear about your neighbors, especially the kids, God bless them and may they rest in peace.

Luckily, this doesn't happen, very often on military bases or posts. Normally, military personnel are well balanced, intelligent, people with good morals. They are normally the pillars of society that dedicate lots of time to the community. There is always the exception though, and it looks like this was one of them.

Matt, God bless all that serve and thank you for the selfless service that you provide.

BTW, your kids are very resilient and they will pull out of it well. All you have to do is love them, care for them, and guide them throughout life, like the good father that you are.

bdavis441 · 03-02-2008, 11:28 AM

Very sad, I hope your kids deal with it as well as can be expected. The human mind is a strange thing. As crazy and sad as this is he was obviously ill as it made sense to him at the time. Somehow in his his sickened mind, this was the right thing to do. Sounds like he needed help long ago. It is truly hard to understand as a parent. I cannot ever imagine harming my children no matter how much I hated their mother. (I don't, BTW, I love her dearly). I suppose if there is anything to be learned from this, It's that if someone close to you needs help, at least try to get it for them.

Jarlaxle · 04-20-2008, 09:27 AM

I wonder if the guy had an undetected brain tumor...

Bummer x 1000000

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