.
I used to live in Lane county - Springfield, - on Main St.,
about a mile from Thurston high school, in fact.
I was driving south on I-5 from Seattle the day when Kip Kinkel
went on his shooting rampage in the school's cafeteria on May 21, 1998 -
with a 9×19mm Glock 19 pistol, and a .22-caliber Ruger MK II pistol.
I listened to the news coverage on the radio while it was happening all the way home.
He killed one student (17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson) and wounded
25 other students.
This was after he shot and killed his mother and father at home.
His mother was a psychologist who had the kid on all kinds of psych meds.
Those drugs apparently didn't work very well - right?
Kinkel said -
"My head just doesn't work right. God damn these VOICES
inside my head. ... I have to kill people.
I don't know why. ... I have no other choice."
NOTE: His father had just given Kip one of the guns (the Ruger)
for his 17th birthday. (Obviously a very bad gift choice.)
Kinkel pled guilty to murder and attempted murder and was
sentenced to 111 years in prison without the possibility
of parole. He is currently incarcerated at the Oregon
State Correctional Institution.
