Orlando shooting suspect had recently filed for bankruptcy (financial desperation)

[UpInArms]

Source: CNN

Orlando, Florida (CNN) -- The suspect in Friday's shooting of six people in a downtown high-rise is a 40-year-old "man with economic woes that include a recent bankruptcy filing, federal records show.

In his filing last May for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, under which he sought to have his assets liquidated and his debts discharged, Jason S. Rodriguez listed his assets at $4,675 and his liabilities at $89,873.31.

His 2002 Nissan XTerra with 110,000 miles represented $4,000 of those assets. His personal property filing described the vehicle as having body damage on the right side, an air conditioner that did not work and a transmission that was slipping.

He said his monthly income as a "sandwich artist" at a Subway Restaurant in Orlando, where he had worked for nine months, was $890.67, and he listed his monthly expenses at $815.

<snip>

In addition, he was behind on his rent ($1,402.05), owed $450 to American Express, $110 to AT&T for his cell phone service and $343 to Florida Hospital Orlando for unspecified medical services, the document said.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/orlando.shooting.suspect/

---

this is the picture of those who thought they might someday ...

[bbinacan]

1. Doesn't excuse what he did. n/t

[UpInArms]

2. there is never an excuse for violence

there are reasons that people snap

many cannot summon the strength to actually live through financial ruin without other issues

this is merely a "shot across the bow" that there are many unstable people among us

[heliarc]

10. Taxation without representation...

was a reason for violence... I think it was the founding fathers who massed an army on that one.

[wroberts189]

4. No but it helps to explain it and perhaps prevent this from happening again. nt

[debbierlus]

11. It may help explain it, but it won't stop it from happening again

People are financially breaking apart by the millions. And, this sytem doesn't much care.

Of course, killing innocent people is horrendous and wrong. However, society creates its own monsters, it is naive and dishonest to believe all of this happens in some bubble.

[greiner3]

12. Is anyone that's close to you mentally ill?

You may not even know if they are. There are a lot of people who can snap given the circumstances. I'd say that this guy was a situation waiting to happen. Take it from someone who was at the brink but did not fall or step over the line. Not by accident or design, but by sheer, dumb luck. Multiply me by a million, throw in chance and think about it.

[Fire1]

3. Not surprising and will happen with more frequency. n/t

[Robb]

5. So engineer, laid off. Got job at Subway.

Just shy of $900/month income and a $1400 rent.

But for the grace of God, eh?

[bbinacan]

6. Was he an engineer? n/t

[UpInArms]

7. from another link:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/orlando.shootings/index.html

Earlier, authorities identified the suspect as Jason Rodriguez, who formerly worked for Reynolds Smith & Hills, an architectural and engineering firm, in Gateway Center. A company spokesman said he had been let go two years ago for "performance issues."

Demings said authorities received a phone call around 11 a.m. ET about an active shooting at the 16-story office building.

Shortly afterward, officers arrived at the building, which lies beside Interstate 4 and Lake Ivanhoe on the northern edge of downtown, and began searching it floor by floor, she said.

Meanwhile, police cordoned off the area and a sheriff's department helicopter circled overhead.

During the search for the suspect, I-4 was closed in both directions, but it had reopened by midafternoon Friday, according to the Department of Transportation's Web site.

Mike Bernof, a spokesman for Reynolds Smith & Hills, said the company's office in Orlando primarily does transportation engineering work and that Rodriguez did engineering with the firm. He did not offer further details.

[bbinacan]

9. Thanks for the info. n/t

[UpInArms]

8. sorry for all of this - but this incident hit a nerve - I was in OKC when "postal" became

a noun

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/E/ED003.html

USPS letter carrier Patrick H. Sherrill, a “disgruntled postal worker” fit the profile of a potential mass killer. A loner and socially inept, he was unable to hold a job for long and blamed management for his problems. His fascination with guns was fed by service in the U.S. Marines and active participation in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, where he became a small arms expert. Frustrated at being formally disciplined by his postal supervisor several times, Sherrill had on two occasions threatened revenge. After receiving a reprimand on August 19, he reported to work on the morning of August 20 armed with three semiautomatic pistols and ammunition. He entered the facility, shot his supervisor to death, and tracked his co-workers through the building, killing fourteen and wounding six. He then killed himself.

In 1987 a seven-thousand-page U.S. Postal Inspector's Report analyzed the Edmond tragedy, and a one-day congressional hearing allowed the survivors and families a brief forum on March 18, 1987. Each concluded that measures should have been in place to profile Sherrill and prevent his hiring and to apply occupational health and safety standards and federal regulations to postal facilities.

No words can assess or mitigate the shooting's terrible impact on the victims and their families. Emotional and physical recovery was slow, but sure. To honor the dead and the survivors, in 1989 the community of Edmond and the U.S. Postal Service placed a large sculptural memorial on the grounds of the Edmond Post Office. Sculptor Richard Muno depicted a standing man and woman holding a yellow ribbon; they are surrounded by fourteen fountains, one for each victim. The inscription lists the victims: “Patricia Ann Chambers, Judy Stephens Denney, Richard C. Esser, Jr., Patricia A. Gabbard, Jonna Ruth Gragert, Patty Jean Husband, Betty Ann Jared, William F. Miller, Kenneth W. Morey, Leroy Orrin Phillips, Jerry Ralph Pyle, Paul Michael Rockne, Thomas Wade Shader, Jr., Patti Lou Welch.”

The Edmond incident was one of fifteen homicide incidents by postal employees from 1986 through 1999 in which thirty-four postal workers and six nonemployees were killed. In turn, these spawned numerous workplace-violence studies by criminologists, psychiatrists, and federal agencies. New hiring, employee management, and safety practices did result, and federal law concerning homicide against federal employees was expanded in 1996 (after the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing) to include all federal employees.

In perspective, by the year 2000 workplace violence took the lives of an average of one thousand persons per year, in all workplace environments. Of those, only .2 percent (two-tenths of one percent) of incidents involved postal workers. It is ironic and unfortunate that at the end of the twentieth century the Edmond Post Office Massacre was most often remembered for instigating the use of the term "going postal" to describe workplace violence in general.

[boppers]

15. Architects and Engineers got hit HARD in the last 2 years.

No infrastructure or building = no jobs.

[caseymoz]

13. Interesting, but how do you get from there to: "so he went on a homicidal rampage."

That's what I'm missing. What did he think he was helping? Who did he think he was hurting? So, he was mad as hell because his fortunes were sinking. Doing what he did is just hateful. It showed he had enough loathing for everyone around him that when things got bad nobody else mattered to him.

I feel horrible in this bad economy for families who suffer murder suicides. I can't feel that way about him.

[quakerboy]

16. People get broken

Some are easier to break than others.

[caseymoz]

22. That's generally true, but going on a rampage doesn't indicate broken.

It indicates pissed off-- either at random helpless people, or at people he couldn't reach, so he used random, helpless people to make a point. Aside from the fact that his adrenals would have been firing and compelling him to do something mean, I can't think of anything mitigating about this.

Looking at his spending on credit, he would probably be bankrupt even in a good economy. In a bad economy, he was looking at an ugly decade, at least, rebuilding his life, and maybe time in jail for not paying his child support. That's nothing compared with the misery he inflicted on the people he shot, and the family who now mourns their loss. Those are the people who are really made to suffer for this economy, with guys like this being the middlemen.

[quakerboy]

27. Really?

I would assert that anyone who would willingly/willfully hurt others is broken. Perhaps broken in the way of a bottle in an alley, not in the way of a toy that dosnt whir and clank as it once did, but broken none the less.

[caseymoz]

34. A matter of symantics then: morally broken.

I would call that a term of compassion. It's easy to feel compassion after he has been caught and detained. When he's shooting at you, though, it's absolutely dangerous to feel that way.

But when he's caught, it's appropriate.

[Blue_Tires]

29. once people get to that mental state, they lash out at whoever they hold responsible

doesn't matter how really 'responsible' the targets might be...

it's just a simple statement in his head saying "I don't have a job and am drowning in debt because of (fill in the blank)...The deserve to know what they have done to me, and I have no other recourse"

[caseymoz]

35. Why would he feel everybody else did it? And why would he feel he had no other recourse?

Those are big assumptions. It might be that he was enraged that day and had long since stopped thinking about tomorrow, and stopped thinking about everybody else.

[Blue_Tires]

36. yeah i know i'm assuming a lot, but

looking at the profile of the people who go on workplace shootings, one of the common threads is blaming a boss or co-worker for their present predicament (and once their mind is on this track, to hell with the consequences)...

and I know this is never popular to point out, but too many of us still have the societal mindset that violence or a hail of bullets is a legit way to settle a difference...

[Divine Discontent]

14. correct - it doesn't excuse it. unfortunately with the job market being so bad (10%+ unemployment)

we're gonna continue hearing of slaughter like this as those who are obviously a bit unstable to begin with, are exposed for their unfortunate weak mental state when hard times set in.

This guy could have found a place for 600-750 a month in Orlando, but no, he goes off the deep end because he cannot afford his 1400 a month place and can't afford to go see his kid. There's no excuse for what he did, and I beg anyone who feels hopeless like that to seek help before ruining someone else's life. The guy he killed today didn't deserve to have his life ended by this twisted man.

[truthisfreedom]

17. Someone's got to teach these people to kill themselves when they're desperate. Not others.

At least during the Great Depression people jumped out of windows and didn't go shooting people randomly, destroying their lives.

[Grassy Knoll]

18. What ever happened to " Get by with a little help from my friends "

Look for help, cut back on your old life style, some day it will come back.
But a gun will only make it worse, unless you WANT 3 hots and a cot for the rest of your life
With no freedom.

[closeupready]

21. He may not have any. Lots of people don't, sadly.

I have a number of poor friends - well, not REALLY poor, but just getting by, often can't afford even a movie ticket, and you know what, we always have a good time just getting together and talking and seeing each other. I just love my friends so much.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

19. I wonder if such desperation would exist in a nation without so many ads?

May sound silly but,...I swear,...if a person literally lived in pursuit of the "American Dream" presented on teevee 24/7 where everyone who is "worthy" is able to own a beautiful house and car, with new clothes and good food and vacations and access to so many conveniences,...while "worthy" is simultaneously defined as being moral and hard-working,...

Most common American citizens find themselves living way beneath the threshold of all those privileges and conveniences shown as a common shared experience among 'good' Americans. Every citizen handles the contradictions differently. I expect some people to either destroy themselves or others because reconciliation is impossible for them. Others simply accept that the conditions of their lives, in comparison, is either a meaningful lesson or fate.

What is disgusting is that, any citizen should HAVE to cope with such desperation? This is the nation of PLENTY,...

I love this nation's people but I fucking HATE those in power who are killing the souls of our nation's people with their sole agenda of profit. They have destroyed a democracy pursuing nothing other than a capitalist-ocracy.

[Blue_Tires]

30. that is probably part of it...

Central Florida (like a lot of other places) is big on lifestyle, materiel wealth, weekend toys, etc...I bet his neighbors had a lot of toys (and the shooter probably did too until things went south) and he began to get resentful..

[jberryhill]

20. Rodriguez.... Sounds like a Roman Catholic name..

How long are we going to put up with armed Catholics among us?

[Psephos]

23. jberryhill...sounds like an attorney name

How long are we going to put up with bigoted attorneys among us?

Or even unbigoted attorneys?

Not much longer... ;)

[jberryhill]

24. Clearly you miss the point

So for the analogy impaired...

It seems that when someone loses their grip and shoots a lot of people, their religion only matters if they are not on the list of acceptable religions.

But I constantly forget there are people on DU who are too literal to understand when a point is being indirectly made.

[Psephos]

26. you're right, I did not understand the implicit point

But I do now.

Thanks for the explanation.

[Tarheel_Dem]

25. I fear that these latest events are a potential powder keg. Brown people....

will all become suspect again, and that makes it hard for those who live within the law. It makes it all too easy for people to justify their suspicions. I just feel sorry for the families of all the victims, and the families of the killers as well.

Report: Mount Airy Suspected Shooter Deported Before

Police: Man Suspected Of Killing 4 Shouldn't Have Been In US

POSTED: 11:03 pm EST November 6, 2009
UPDATED: 11:08 pm EST November 6, 2009

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. -- The shooting suspect charged with killing four people in Mount Airy shouldn't have been in the country, according to reports released Friday.

WXII's news partners at the Mount Airy News uncovered through federal authorities that Marcos Gonzalez had previously been deported from the U.S. to Mexico.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed that the suspect in this week's quadruple slaying was not only in this country illegally, but he has already been deported once before.

The 29-year-old is accused of shooting and killing four men outside a Mount Airy TV store last Sunday, but ICE officials said he never should have been in the city or even in the U.S. Officials said they deported Gonzalez to Mexico two years ago after a kidnapping conviction in Surry County.

"I think he will die here in North Carolina for the crimes he has committed," Watson said.

http://www.wxii12.com/news/21547295/detail.html

I don't even want to tell you some of the things the residents were saying about the government, and lax border enforcement. Let's just say, Mr. Rodriguez did nothing to help the immigration debate.

[lupinella]

28. I live about three blocks from where he was caught.

This story hits me personally because of the high violent crime and high unemployment in my city. Orlando has been affected by the recession particularly hard due to the fact that we are so dependent on tourism for our survival. We are also known for having a poor record when it comes to support services for those in need. (Read madfloridian's journal for better insights.) Our populace is very transient in nature and there is not a strong sense of community.

That being said, I lost my full time position this year due to the economy. I work four part time jobs, have no health insurance and have been known to do a lot of my grocery shopping at the dollar store. Also, my car is older, has more miles on it and is in worse shape than the alleged shooter's. It has been an extremely difficult time. Never have I considered injuring others due to my situation. I understand that this man may have had psychological issues that had not been addressed, but I get angry whenever people feel they have a right to kill or injure others due to a stressor in their own life. There are reasons for such actions, but never excuses.

[Blue_Tires]

31. thanks for the insights

welcome to the site!

[Lorien]

33. Hey Lupinella. I live in downtown Orlando (Lake Davis area)

PM me if you ever want to make a run to Costco for food. I've been getting some amazing deals there lately. I also make an Aldi's run every so often. I'd be happy to take you along with me.

[DuaneBidoux]

32. Funny, I felt like shooting someone until I filed for bankruptcy. After I had some peace.

[UnderDem]

37. Exactly. n/t