Loughner's Meltdown Began in Adulthood, Those Near Him Say
The cloudy image of the gunman in Saturday's horrific shooting in Tucson is starting to come into focus, as neighbors and acquaintances paint a picture of a troubled young man whose disturbing behavior started to flare up in just the last few years.
Gunman Jared Lee Loughner, charged in the shooting that left six dead and 14 wounded including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, has a minor criminal record dating back to 2007. But his former high school principal, Richard Faidley, told FoxNews.com that he didn't have any major disciplinary problems in school before that.
"I don't recall anything of any significance with that individual," Faidley said, other than that he was involved in the school band program.
But Loughner's problems have now escalated to the point that his family has barricaded itself in their home, hounded by reporters and spectators who want to know how the 22-year-old could have gone on a killing spree on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Tucson.
The FBI was forced to wait outdoors Monday while the family removed the plywood it had used to blockade the door. After a few minutes of removing the wood, FBI began another search of the property that has been upended in the orderly and ongoing law enforcement investigation.
Loughner, meanwhile, made his first appearance in federal court on Monday afternoon to face charges in the rampage. With a shaved head and a blank stare, he said only that he understood the charges, when asked by the judge.
Gov. Jan Brewer, speaking in her annual state of the state speech, said the attack was an assault not merely on individuals, but on "on our republic, on our democracy." She said despite the impact, Arizona will not be brought down.
"In fact, we've been lifted up by America's thoughts and prayers and we're deeply grateful for them," she said.
As for Loughner's descent, his problems seem to have started to mount after he dropped out of Mountain View High School in 2006. It's unclear whether his behavior seriously startled anyone in the years immediately following, but after attending a local transitional school and then enrolling in Pima Community College, his classmates and his professors noticed something was wrong with Loughner.
Last year may have been a breaking point.
According to the college, campus police got involved on five separate occasions for "classroom and library disruptions" involving Loughner between February and September of last year. Things came to a head after campus police discovered a YouTube clip he filmed on campus that showed him saying the college is constitutionally illegal.
Loughner was suspended on Sept. 29 and withdrew a few days later. He was told that if he ever wanted to return he'd have to obtain a "mental health clearance" from a mental health professional saying he did not present a danger.
Loughner never presented such a document and never returned to school.
Ben McGahee, a math professor who pushed for Loughner to be removed, told Fox News he was scared for other students' safety.
Pima college students were equally concerned. Classmate Lynda Sorenson, 52, offered an eerily prescient warning in a personal e-mail to friends last summer.
"We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon," she said in an e-mail, published by The Washington Post. "Everyone interviewed would say, Yeah, he was in my math class and he was really weird. I sit by the door with my purse handy. If you see it on the news one night, know that I got out fast..."
Sorenson wrote that Loughner was "seriously disturbed," though she wasn't sure whether he was "on drugs."
Apparently, he was. Loughner was rejected from the Army in late 2008 when, during the application process, he admitted to using marijuana numerous times, according to a military source.
His 2007 arrest on record in Pima County was for possessing drug paraphernalia and other minor infractions.
A high school friend of Loughner, Caitie Parker, has given a detailed account of his personality and background on her Twitter page over the past few days. According to Parker, Loughner had "a lot of friends until he got alcohol poisoning in ‘06" and dropped out of high school.
She described him as "left wing" and "quite liberal" and "oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy." Parker described him as a "pot head" who was into rock music, though she hadn't seen him since 2007.
"I think he slowly descended in a psychotic break. Something in him snapped. He wasn't always like this," she wrote.
Loughner's neighbors described the young man as generally quiet and not talkative or friendly.
"It was almost as if he had blinders on," Stephen Woods, who lives next door, told Fox News on Monday. He said his son Anthony would try to wave to Loughner and he would just keep on walking. "No response, he wouldn't even look at him."
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Mental Health Warnings Ignored
If the gunman in Saturday’s mass shooting had sought mental health treatment years ago, doctors could have been able to work out his problems before he allegedly unleashed terror on the crowd outside a Safeway in southern Arizona, a top state health official told FoxNews.com on Monday.
But that early intervention likely never happened. Though colleagues and acquaintances expressed concern, particularly over the past year, about Jared Lee Loughner’s mental state, no evidence has yet emerged showing he sought treatment.
Pima Community College effectively kicked Loughner off campus last September after a series of disruptions and told him that if he ever wanted to return he’d need a “mental health clearance” from a professional saying he did not present a danger. Loughner never returned with the document.
Dr. Laura Nelson, deputy director for behavioral health at the Arizona Department of Health Services, told FoxNews.com the state has no record of Loughner, 22, seeking mental health treatment in the public system.
“I truly believe that it could have (helped),” Nelson said.
Loughner also reportedly did not seek help in the Pima County system. Now that six people are dead and 14 wounded in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, experts and officials and acquaintances say Loughner clearly had mental health issues that should have been addressed.
Personal accounts and public records suggest that Loughner’s behavioral problems didn’t start to surface until his late teenage years. He was in concert band and jazz band before dropping out of high school in 2006. He liked rock music. And home life may not have been so bad -- while little is known about his father other than his proclivity for bickering with neighbors, Loughner’s mother was a loyal employee with the local parks department who had been on staff since 1987.
Then something about Jared Loughner changed.
Nelson, while careful not to offer a diagnosis of Loughner, described in general terms a mental illness profile that would sound familiar to anyone following Loughner’s case. The doctor said that schizophrenia, as well as bipolar disorder, often stay dormant until the college years.
“Many times, more serious mental illnesses will become much more evident in the late teenage years, early adulthood,” she said. For schizophrenia patients, she said, they may be predisposed to the illness but not ’t show it until the symptoms are set off by a “trigger.” That could be a traumatic event or substance abuse, including the use of marijuana – a drug Loughner apparently used quite a bit. The symptoms, Nelson said, are hallucinations, paranoia, “losing touch with reality” and becoming “socially withdrawn.”
Nelson said mental illness alone typically does not make people violent. But she said substance abuse can contribute and that people who have “anti-social behavioral tendencies could be prone to violence.”
Though Loughner had friends in high school, neighbors who had fleeting contact with him over the last few years said he kept to himself. He would walk his dog around the neighborhood but not respond to others.
A portrait of Loughner’s home life is still emerging. Anthony Woods, a teenager who lives next door, said Loughner’s father would argue a lot with neighbors over trivial matters. But his mother, Amy, was apparently a nature lover. She started out with Pima County’s Parks and Recreation Department as a maintenance worker nearly 25 years ago and later became a horticulturist. Most recently she was employed as a park manager for the Agua Caliente Park, supervising staff and tending to the 101-acre park described online as an “oasis in the desert.”
“She’s been with us a long time,” Pima County Human Resources Director Gwyn Hatcher told FoxNews.com.
Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team, said Jared Loughner appeared “psychiatrically ill” and should have been admitted to a psychiatric unit.
Now that six people are dead, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is suffering from a traumatic gunshot wound to the head, few in Tucson have any sympathy for Loughner. In a small coffee shop up the street from Loughner’s house on Monday, customers chatted passionately about the need for justice in the case. One expressed concern that the insanity defense would be used.
Nelson said a lesson can still be drawn from all of this. She said teachers, family members, health professionals, members of the clergy and others must be cognizant of the signs of mental illness and encourage anyone showing those signs to seek help.
“People really can get better,” she said.
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