Last night I was reading old articles about Raleigh, NC. I graduated high school there xx years ago lol, but quickly moved away after. I loved that city so sometimes I like to just look at old pics of the city to reminisce. (Just giving some background on how I came across the forthcoming) I came across this article about one of the local malls there that I actually worked at as a teenager in the late 80s. They had a “sniper shooting” at this mall (what would now be entitled “mass shooting”) in 1972. I either do not remember ever hearing of this history or because at the time these things just didn’t happen on the regular that it wasn’t something my teenager brain imprinted to remember.
Gunman in the parking lot with a semi-automatic rifle he had just purchased 2hours before, just starting shooting at random people in front of the mall entrance. He did shoot himself once he heard police sirens. But it was 6 minutes of hell and he did kill children.
Within this piece the writers of the time where trying to find the “why”
Why would someone do this??? (This was a local man that many people did know)
So they asked local psychiatrists what their thoughts about this where. To me, this, from 1972 mind you, was great simplistic insight to me.
“On the day of the shooting, the Raleigh Times asked several local psychiatrists for their opinions on "what would cause a person to methodically shoot [people] he doesn't know and then kill himself."
One answered that someone with a "shaky emotional makeup" might find frustrations hard to handle. And those frustrations might be real obstacles, or something he felt
entitled to, but wasn't getting. Another psychiatrist said "There's just something in a person with a shaky emotional background that sometimes reaches the critical point." He added, "What it is, we don't know."
A third noted that a person's intellect was at the mercy of their emotions. "When a person enters into a murderous mood, he can very well arrange things, assign ingenuity to his psychotic mood," he said. "He can be very cunning, his intellect serves his ugly mood. He knows what he is doing but he isn't able to refrain from the behavior," the psychiatrist added. "He also knows the difference between right and wrong but he offers explanations to put himself outside what is right or wrong," he added.
The third psychiatrist added that someone in a "murderous rage" is often "calm and methodical" in their behavior.
He wanted to kill people and made “excuses” to do so to himself...like so many before him.
...and now they can shout these “excuses” to the world as the medium is there now for these madmen; right at their fingertips
Like so many not before him
(Link to the history article since I’m quoting
North Hills Sniper Attack - Memorial Day, 1972