The violent past of the Walmart shooter is coming to light. New information obtained by 44News reveals a number of threatening messages. Behavioral red flags are piling up for gunmen, raising even more questions about how they were allowed to own firearms.
In an interview with 44News, the gunman’s longtime colleague and former confidante Andrew Thurmond detailed a long history of violent behavior and escalating threats leading to a targeted attack at a Walmart west of Evansville. I mentioned
He also said the shooter obtained a 9mm pistol, the same type of weapon used in the shooting in August 2022. [the gunman] I bought it [the handgun] legal. I don’t know how. ”
Thurmond’s disbelief in a shooter’s ability to obtain guns came from his first-hand experience of being targeted and receiving disturbing messages from fake accounts on his PlayStation. He was also directly threatened by the shooter.
According to Thurmond, “I’ve never received a death threat in my life until this guy decided to snap.” The next day, I got a restraining order against him. ”
The shooting victim received rape and death threats from the same PlayStation account. A message was sent to another woman from her fake Facebook account. In these messages, the shooters had made explanatory threats about how they would kill their own children. Thurmond said police saw all of these messages.
“They didn’t really do much. They went there, but they looked at his phone and were like, ‘Oh, I didn’t find anything, so I can’t do anything.’ Every time I got death threats they told me to put out a restraining order. My friend wouldn’t be missing an eyeball now. ”
Thurmond detailed incidents in which the shooter cornered a colleague in a room, threw a chair in the break room, and clenched his fists and screamed after a colleague offered to join him for lunch. described a dangerously unpredictable man prone to extreme mood swings.
Officials said the shooter did nothing to prevent him from owning a firearm before the shooting. The incident revealed cracks in the restrictions that allowed apparently violent men to carry out violent acts. As a result, one woman’s life, and perhaps the lives of many others, has changed forever.
