It’s hard to figure out what made a man bring a gun into a school board meeting in Panama City, FL and open fire on the school board members. It was an absolute miracle that nobody else, besides the gunman, Clay Duke, was killed or injured. I’m sure there will be several who are affected emotionally and I pray for all of the folks who were involved.
I also pray for the Panama City News Herald reporters who were there at the time. As a person who covers these county government meetings I have often feared of something like this happening. It’s very disturbing and scary. I can’t imagine what I would have done if it were me in this situation. All I can say is it’s a blessing no others were harmed.
If you watch the video on the Atlanta Journal Constitution Associated Press story, you can see that Duke is frustrated because his wife was fired from her teaching job.
He never tells them what her job was or who she was. He talks about their benefits running out and being broke and having nothing left. He tells them several times that he is going to die today. He also says, I’ve been to prison before. On a Facebook page he made last week, which has been removed, Duke claims to be a freedom fighter and says he was born poor in a country where the rich take advantage of the poor and control them to do as they wish.
The reporter who was there on the scene also wrote reflection of the event and how it has affected him and how he will never forget it. The school’s security guard Mike Jones ultimately shoots Duke and distracts him enough that he probably saved their lives. Duke, then while down on the floor shoots himself in the head.
It’s such a sad and disturbing event. I’m so tired of these shootings and what’s really disturbing to me is there are people who think this guy was a hero! Very sad!
It’s not glamorous to threaten people and scare them displaying a firearm and shooting the place up. It’s a sick, twisted mind in need of mental help.
Please pray for all of the families, including this poor guy’s wife.
God certainly had to be in that board room with those people.