Report: Orange County gunman was social outcast, even on the Internet: (Log in info)
This is basically an article about how the Aliso Viejo shooter William Freund found as little social acceptance on the web as he did in real life…
Freund only opened up on the Internet, which he accessed from his computer-filled bedroom at his parents house. The Times said he played online games, discussed movies and TV shows such as “The Outer Limits,” posted reviews of online businesses, bought and sold video games and paintball supplies on eBay.
He left pleas for friendship on some Web sites.
“I’ve never really had a friend,” Freund wrote in one profile. “I’ve never had someone I can share more intimate conversation with, or just have a good time with.”
In more troubling messages, he discussed guns and, in the weeks before his death, talked about his thoughts of suicide.
“I think the only thing to do is go admit myself to a hospital I feel like I need to kill myself,” he wrote in an Oct. 19 post on wrongplanet.com, a Web site for those with Asperger’s syndrome.
In one message, Freund said he planned to “Start a Terror Campaign To hurt those that have hurt me,” and added: “My future ended some time ago.”
Actually, it’s wrongplanet.net, but anyway, I find it hard to believe he couldn’t even find one friend. Granted he had a disorder that limited his social skills, I find it hard to believe there wasn’t one person out there that he couldn’t find a connection with.
I previously wrote about how some of the moderators at wrongplanet.net tried to contact Freund’s family after posting on their forum. If no one on that forum cared for him, then why did they try to help him?
According to the article, Freund was ridiculed on the Something Awful forums…
In a firearms forum on the Web site somethingawful.com, Freund talked about staging a “Halloween shootout” to get even with pranksters who vandalized his pumpkin last Halloween.
That was met with ridicule.
“I can imagine this mongoloid, sitting on his creaky porch, one strap on his overalls, leaping up and running to the defense of his precious 24-ounce pumpkin,” read one response.
Freund’s comments got him banned from the Web site three days before his rampage.
There are two problems with the internet. There are a lot of idiots who post ridiculous messages on forums just to get attention, and there are people who feel the need to belittle others to make themselves feel good.
So it was hard to tell that this was a credible threat or not. And if Freund was planning on sitting out on his porch with a shotgun, then again it goes to show that the attack was premeditated.
However, the questions still remain why did he target the Smiths, and where did he obtain the shotgun?
The article seems to almost excuse Freund’s killing spree because of the harassment he received combined with his disorder. Asperger’s does not limit your ability to determine what is right and wrong. Freund must have had some other issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if they dug a little deeper and found that he was researching school shootings or other killing sprees.
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