Killer left behind angry online message
Source: Agencies |
January 7, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
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AN angry online posting from a 17-year-old boy who opened fire at a high school in the United States, killing an assistant principal before later fatally shooting himself, offers some clues about why the son of a police detective turned violent a couple of months after transferring there.
As authorities work to sort out what may have led to Wednesday's shooting, those who knew Robert Butler Jr are struggling to reconcile his final actions with their memories of the fun, outgoing student who liked to make jokes and sometimes got into trouble for talking in class.
The gunman, who had attended Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, for no more than two months, also wounded the principal before fleeing from the scene and fatally shooting himself in his car less than 2 kilometers away.
"It's just unreal," said Robert Uribe, Butler's stepgrandfather. Uribe said nothing appeared to be wrong when he talked to Butler briefly when he last saw him a month ago.
Uribe said that the polite young man he knew didn't seem like a likely gunman.
"I don't know what would possess him to do that," Uribe said.
Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar, 58, died at Creighton University Medical Center on Wednesday evening, hours after the shooting. Principal Curtis Case, 45, was in serious but stable condition.
Butler posted a rambling message on Facebook about his unhappiness with his new school shortly before the shooting, but he didn't supply many details. Instead, the expletive-laced note predicted Butler's friends would hear about the "evil things" he was about to do.
He wrote that the Omaha school was worse than his previous one, and that the new city had changed him. He apologized and said he wanted people to remember him for who he was before affecting "the lives of the families I ruined." The post ended with "goodbye."
As authorities work to sort out what may have led to Wednesday's shooting, those who knew Robert Butler Jr are struggling to reconcile his final actions with their memories of the fun, outgoing student who liked to make jokes and sometimes got into trouble for talking in class.
The gunman, who had attended Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, for no more than two months, also wounded the principal before fleeing from the scene and fatally shooting himself in his car less than 2 kilometers away.
"It's just unreal," said Robert Uribe, Butler's stepgrandfather. Uribe said nothing appeared to be wrong when he talked to Butler briefly when he last saw him a month ago.
Uribe said that the polite young man he knew didn't seem like a likely gunman.
"I don't know what would possess him to do that," Uribe said.
Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar, 58, died at Creighton University Medical Center on Wednesday evening, hours after the shooting. Principal Curtis Case, 45, was in serious but stable condition.
Butler posted a rambling message on Facebook about his unhappiness with his new school shortly before the shooting, but he didn't supply many details. Instead, the expletive-laced note predicted Butler's friends would hear about the "evil things" he was about to do.
He wrote that the Omaha school was worse than his previous one, and that the new city had changed him. He apologized and said he wanted people to remember him for who he was before affecting "the lives of the families I ruined." The post ended with "goodbye."
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