No one will ever know what was going on in Michael McLendon's mind yesterday. In the coming days various talking heads will air their opinions but none of them will be able to tell with any accuracy what drove the man to first kill his mother, then drive to the factory where he once worked, leaving 12 people dead including a child who was transported to a hospital in critical condition. Words like "shocking" and "tragic" will be bantered about but ultimately, no one will be able to tell us. Because the one person who could tell managed to kill himself before the police could stop him. Not that I believe that the police would have allowed him to give his pathetice excuse for whatever enraged him to the point of homocide because two of his innocent victims were the wife and child of a sheriff's deputy. I am sure that he would have died in a barrage of gunfire and I could empathize with the rage of the officers involved in such a shooting. They followed his twelve mile path of destruction, they knew they were dealing with someone who could kill without blinking.
Someone may even be bold enough to suggest that Michael McLendon killed himself because he knew there was no way out and that there was a glimmer of remorse for his action that brought about his suicide. I can't buy into that theory. Whatever drove him to matricide stripped Michael McLendon of his humaninty. The man who drove down Highway 52 shooting randomly as he went was someone who had lost whatever vestige of civilized behavior he once possessed. He was rogue and needed to be cut from the herd like a mad animal, by whatever means available. Sadly, Law Enforcement couldn't reach him in time. Thankfully, they cornered him before he was able to add to his tally of death.
Once upon a time, I might have been upset enough to cry over a story like this. I watched the events at Columbine High School and other mass shootings and cried. But the world has gotten crazier, and I've become a little calloused. "Oh no, not again." has been replaced with "Oh no, where now".


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/11/alabama.shooting.spree/index.html?eref=rss_topstories