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Under the username “2PLOY,” Jared Lee Loughner — the alleged gunman behind Saturday’s massacre in Arizona — posted a YouTube video in September titled “Pima Community College School-Genocide/Scam-Free Education-Broken United States Constitution.” That was the final straw that brought about the college’s suspension of Loughner, according to police reports released late Wednesday.
But even when an officer from the community college delivered notice of his suspension to Loughner’s home on Sept. 29, there was additional cause for worry. Loughner “held a constant trance of staring” as the officer narrated the past events of what had transpired.
“Even though we spent approximately one hours relaying the information and narration of Jared’s actions that brought him to his current predicament, Jared left his silence and spoke out saying ‘I realize now this is all a scam’,” he said.
From the reports, it seemed clear that administrators and police were disturbed by Loughner’s actions for nearly a year.
On February 5, 2010, Division Dean Patricia Houston reported Loughner to campus police for suspicious activity. Loughner had reacted strangely to a classmate’s reading of a poem in a poetry class. She said that Loughner had made comments that were “a huge leap from the context of the poem” and make unsolicited comments on abortion, wars, killing people, as well as suggesting strapping bombs to babies. Houston called Loughner “creepy” and said he had a “dark personality.” She also reported that another student had emailed the school because they believed Loughner was carrying a knife to class.
Then on April 6, the director of the college library called the campus police because Loughner was listening to music on his headphone and making loud outbursts. When an officer asked Loughner what he was doing, he replied that he often got really into music and he would “excitedly utter phrases and words from the songs.”
On May 17, Loughner became “very hostile” after instructor Patricia Curry told him his final grade for her class was a B. He “threw his work down” and said it was “unacceptable.” When Curry took Loughner outside the classroom to discuss, she said she felt as though the situation almost became physical. Loughner made Curry so nervous that she told police that she didn’t want to hold her final class of the year without “an officer in the area.” Loughner also met with Curry’s supervisor, Susan Heinrich, who reported feeling “intimidated” by the student.
On September 23, 2010, campus police responded to yet another distruption by Loughner. After being told he was only going to receive a half credit on a late homework assignment, Loughner flew into a rage and insisted his freedom of speech rights were being abridged. One officer, J. States, wrote on Sept. 23 that he “noticed during the conversation that Louhghner’s head was constantly tilting to the left and his eyes were jittery.”
“Officer Mattocks and I met with Mr. Conover and conveyed to him through our training and experience there might be a mental health concern involved with Loughner,” States wrote. The other officer, D. Mattocks, wrote “It was clear that he was unable to fully understand his actions.”
Loughner told a college administrator on Sept. 23 that he had not paid for his college courses legally because he had not paid in gold or silver. Dr. Aubrey Conover wrote that Loughner “held himself very rigidly and smiled overtly at inappropriate times.”
Here’s some excerpts from the video posted on YouTube.
Here is a screen grab of Loughner’s YouTube page:
Additional reporting by Melissa Jeltsen.
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