Comment on Despite volatility, on-air rampage difficult to predict

Despite volatility, on-air rampage difficult to predict

(AP) — Living alone in a world of perceived slights, Vester Lee Flanagan II never quite crossed the line from being just another angry guy to doing something that would have prevented him from buying the gun he used to kill two former co-workers on live TV in Virginia. Video from inside his home obtained by NBC News shows a sparsely decorated apartment and a refrigerator plastered with photos of himself, including old class pictures and modeling shots that he also posted on social media. Perhaps to bring attention to his complaints after-the-fact, Flanagan — using his on-air name, Bryce Williams — posted a grisly video of himself killing Parker and Wade and sent a series of tweets complaining about the two, who often worked together on the station's morning show. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Thomas Faison has said Flanagan legally purchased the gun used in the slaying that left a local economic development official injured, something that couldn't have happened if he had prior felony convictions or a history of mental health commitments. Mark Sichel, a New York-based psychotherapist and author, said Flanagan was a classic "injustice collector," a person whose fragile ego leads to paranoid behavior, such as overreacting to perceived slights and creating enemy lists, as a protective mechanism. [...] the phrase "injustice collector" appears in an FBI report on threat assessments prepared in response to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, perpetrated by teenage gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In another, a co-worker at a health insurance company's call center, Michelle Kibodeaux, 46, said he tried to grab her after she made an innocuous remark about him being unusually quiet one day. Companies often want to know the chances an employee will react violently after being fired, but there is no easy answer because it can take years for anger to r

 

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