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A man shoots the mother of his children and then himself, in the middle of the afternoon, in front of his screaming children, in a strip mall parking lot, and a few people here are blaming divorce courts.

The man lost it. No screwed up court system causes this. Good grief.

A police officer shoots himself and the wife who started the process of taking him to a court system that he knows will destroy his life and family.

I don't know if the above is really the case, and it doesn't justify his actions, but desperate people do crazy things.

This guy may have been very wrapped up in his career. It sounds like it, but I don't know. I do know that if you back people into a corner, where they see no way out, and where they see no chance of justice, it is more likely for them to act in crazy ways.

Is it possible that this guy was an abuser? Sure.

Is it possible that he was a guy too wrapped up in his job and marriage who was pushed over the edge by his knowlege of how the current system works? Sure.

Will we ever know? Probably not.

P.S. There is no mention in the article that the children were screaming while he shot himself and his wife. That seems to be a pure additional emotional, gratuitous additon, and it seems highly unlikely, since the kids almost certianly did not know what was going on until it was over.

I am a local that has hung out in the restaurant people ran into asking for help. A worker there that I know went out and held pressure on this woman's head. I have also seen all the TV reports from the scene where the other passers-by heard the children screaming "Daddy NO!" What they heard were two pops of gunfire and the children screaming.

I am sure the man felt his life was a mess. Most people who are married 11 years, have children and then divorce have a period of time when their life is a mess. People can and have lost their minds over a broken heart and a bad outlook on their future.

This man also made a good salary, could afford an attorney, and could work through it the way most of the men who go through this do, without shooting yourself and your children's mother in their presence.

I don't know if the woman was a bitch or not. Maybe they were both out of hand, most of the time these divorces are ugly it is a two way street. My brother said this morning, "Behind every murder/suicide are two people that were impossible to get along with.

But good grief. The worst court settlement in the world doesn't begin to take away from the madness this was.

What did this man think his children would do in the minutes following this act?

P.S. There is no mention in the article that the children were screaming while he shot himself and his wife. That seems to be a pure additional emotional, gratuitous additon, and it seems highly unlikely, since the kids almost certianly did not know what was going on until it was over.

Fact: The local news, KIRO TV, reported repeatedly that witnesses said the children were screaming as all this was happening. The cars were not far apart. Opinion: Given the restraining order, it's likely they heard and saw a lot before Saturday to make them familiar with domestic terror.

In fact, according to the TV reports, he pulled them screaming from her car into his own car, returned to the wife and shot her.