|
BOSTON (AP) - If the attacker at a Pennsylvania school really acted out of overwhelming guilt from molesting relatives in his youth, as police suggest, he would be a very rare breed, even in the bewildering annals of multiple murder, say experts in such crimes.
The history of school shootings and multiple murders is full of attackers who feel bullied or rejected at school, at work, or in marriage. They strike out for symbolic revenge, not out of tortured guilt. Several authorities contacted Tuesday were unable to point to a multiple killing clearly motivated by the latter.
Deluded parents who kill their children typically act out of a warped desire to save them from something worse, said Dr. Phillip Resnick, a psychiatrist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who testified in the trial of Andrea Yates, who drowned her young children in Texas.
|