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Michael McLendon trained to be a cop before Alabama killing spree
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by Amy Judd | March 11, 2009 at 09:20 am
682 views | 10 Recommendations | 4 comments
Michael McLendon, the man who killed ten people in Samson Alabama yesterday, before turning the gun on himself, had previously trained to be a cop before embarking on the Alabama shooting spree. McLendon, who was 28 years old did not complete the training to be an officer, which he undertook in 2003, but he did quit his job at a sausage factory last Wednesday.
It is still unknown why Michael McLendon killed that many people, including his mother, grandmother, uncle and a cousin. The killing spree lasted about an hour. This was the worst mass killing by a single gunman in Alabama's history. Among the dead were also the wife and child of a local sheriff deputy.
"He cleaned his family out," Coffee County Coroner Robert Preachers said. "We don't know what triggered it."
A timeline of the events:
Around 4pm Michael McLendon went to his mother's house, killed her and her four dogs and then set her house on fire.
At 4:15pm, he started driving east to the town of Samson, and stops at another house just outside the city to shoot his grandmother, grandfather, aunt and uncle. He also killed a bystander who lived in a mobile home on his grandparent's property.
He then walks across the street and kills 31-year-old Andrea Myers and her daughter; this was the wife and child of the local sheriff's deputy.
At about 4:30pm Michael McLendon comes in to contact with a State Trooper while driving down Highway 52 - the Trooper's car is shot at but the Trooper suffers only minor injuries.
Just shortly after this, he kills two people at the Little Big Store on Highway 52 and the Samson Pipe Supply store.
He then fires shots at a Wal-Mart on Highway 52, where a local sheriff rams Michael's car. The sheriff is shot in the shoulder but is able to drive himself to the hospital and he lives.
It is just shortly after 4:30pm, so within a matter of minutes of shooting at the Wal-Mart, Michael McLendon reaches the parking lot of Reliable Metal Products, where he used to work. He fires at the police gathered around about 30 times, after which he enters the building where people are still working and then he commits suicide.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 12:52 on March 11th, 2009
I have heard that the suicide rate is up for our returning veterans because instead of counseling, they get anti-depressants.
at 15:17 on March 11th, 2009
Sara Star. I bet you are a Scientologist. To make such a statement is irresponsible. This is not a modern phenomenon. How do you arive at this conclusion? Antidepssants have helped millions of people. Granted, they can be misused, but to just to such a conclusion is shocking coming from a medical professional as you state.
at 13:32 on March 29th, 2009
Pharmaceutical companies have made a concerted, public effort to label anybody making comments against antidepressants as a "Scientologist". Scientology is a horrible things, but so are antidepressants.
SSRI's have ruined my life. I tried to quit a year ago, and I am now half the person I used to be. I can;t think, I can't feel happiness, I twitch, I jerk, could go on. Shortly after going on Prozac at age 14 I began having intense homicidal urges and fantasies about my high school. I only made the connection later.
Yes, SSRI's can give SOME people a TEMPORARY manic reaction, which feels GREAT. It is the nature of neuroplasticity, though, that they don't work forever. And withdrawal is hell, I say again, HELL.
at 02:27 on March 14th, 2009
Just because a person talks about the frequent connection between violence and psychiatric drugs does not mean the person is a Scientologist. An observant person cannot help but notice that in what seems nearly every case, the crazed killer of many turns out to have been on psychiatric drugs or just recently stopped. It is time that the harm such drugs can do is broadly recognized.