Sunday, August 14, 2011

Brandon McInerney's Psychologist: "He told me he just snapped."


The Lawrence King murder trial is revealing a lot about Brandon. Douglas Hoagland, Brandon's psychologist, spend 17 hours evaluating him and learned some interesting info:
"I think it unleashed all that rage that had been stored up and it grew and grew and it did not go away," Hoagland said. "He told me he just snapped."

When he snapped on Feb. 12, 2008, he shot his gay classmate King, 15, twice in the back of the head in his Oxnard classroom. McInerney was 14 at the time of the shooting but is now 17 and on trial for murder and a hate crime.

Hoagland's testimony came as the defense nears the end of its case in which they argued McInerney's abusive childhood in conjunction with sexual harassment by King pushed him to the shooting.
Someone enters a state of dissociation after they can't escape their normal life. They are so overwhelmed they turn inside mentally and are not completely aware of their actions, Hoagland said.
Hoagland spent the morning detailing how the mental and physical abuse that McInerney suffered at the hands of his drunk, drug-abusing father affected him.
source

2 comments:

Mind Of Mine said...

I always have mixed emotions in cases like this. He is being punished by those who in their failure to protect him from his father. They are indirectly responsible for this crime.

But then I look at the person whose upbringing mirrors the shooters and they haven't killed anyone.

SteveA said...

It's sad - Mind of Mine made some good comments there!

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.