SALON

Wednesday, Jan 12, 2011 6:13 PM UTC

Jared Loughner’s disturbing video game forum posts

The suspected shooter's digital footprint tracks his violent thoughts back to a history of violent posts online

By

Topics: Jared Loughner, Gabrielle Giffords, Video Games,

Jared Loughner's disturbing video game forum postsIn this video still provided by Microsoft Corp., a scene from "Halo: Reach" is shown. (AP Photo/Microsoft Corp.) ** NO SALES ** (Credit: AP)

Suspected Arizona gunman Jared Lee Lougher’s own violent rhetoric dates in online gaming forums as early as last spring. According to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, the posts disturbed other gamers in the forum with a mixture of both confusing and alarming statements showing Loughner’s growing frustration.

Some of the posts are vicious:

Would you hit a Handy Cap Child/ Adult? This is a very interesting question….There are mental retarded children. They’re possessing teachers that are typing for money. This will never stop….The drug addicts need to be weeded out to be more intelligent. The Principle of this is that them c— educators need to stop being pigs. (posted on April 23, 2010)

Some are graphically violent:

I bet your hungry….Because i know how to cut a body open and eat you for more then a week. ;-) (posted at 12:03 a.m. on May 20, 2010)

A number of related posts showed Loughner’s frustration with finding a job and also his psychological meanderings toward a different path:

If you went to prison right now…..What would you be thinking? Just curious? (posted May 10, 2010)

The behavior became worrisome enough that one administrator even suggested contacting authorities but wanted “to make sure it’s done through the proper legal means.” While Loughner never mentioned Giffords or his plans for the attack, the extent to which the 22-year-old college dropout struggled in the months leading up to Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011, is undeniable. 

Adam Clark Estes blogs the news for Salon. Email him at ace@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @adamclarkestes More Adam Clark Estes.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 15 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government -- "...much of the U.S. economic security support system consists of subsidies for the affluent in the form of tax breaks, like those for private retirement savings plans such as 401(k)s and private employer-provided health insurance."
63 points64 points | 3 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
54 points55 points | 14 comments
vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
60 points61 points | comment
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
39 points40 points | 4 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
38 points39 points | 8 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations