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History buffs remember Appomattox as the place where Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of the South to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. The two leaders met together for two and one-half hours and ended the bloodiest conflict in the nation’s history. Fast forward 145 years to another tragic loss of human life. An emotionally challenged Chris Speight guns down those he may have believed were trying to push him from the home and surrounding land that his mother had deeded to him and his sister. After committing a horrific act of mass murder, Speight was able to temporarily evade apprehension and even shot down a state police helicopter before surrendering to police.

A song writer once wrote that “you only hurt the ones you love,” and in the case of murder, that seems to be especially true. In 2008 the U.S. witnessed a total of 16,272 murders, 72% of which were, like Speight, committed with firearms. Almost one-quarter of all murder victims are killed by a family member and 42% were killed during some type of argument. In the case of Speight, he is alleged to have murdered his sister and her husband, their two children and four visitors who happened to be in the home at the time he began shooting.

America is number 24 in the list of per capita murders by country, far behind places like Colombia (1), Russia (5), Mexico (6). And even Bulgaria (23). Even still, with 43 murders per 1,000, and almost 280 million firearms distributed among our 310 million citizens, this is still cause for national shame and concern. Some murders are committed by sociopaths; individuals who feel no pain for their use and abuse of others, Others, perhaps like Christopher Speight, find their reason, their motive to kill in the dark recesses of their own challenged minds.

Many mass murderers (three or more victims killed in the same incident) have previously been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and can be delusional as well as depressed. Their reasons for their crimes usually center around personal disappointments, failures, rejections and devistating humiliations in their lives. Some mass murderers identify with the military, wearing some type of uniform during their crime, and many have undergoing significant weapons training. Most suffer some type of precipitating event in their life; perhaps a significant “narcissistic wound” just hours or days before their terrible crime. Adults usually kill alone, while many teenagers kill with another teen in a youthful partnership of death.

While some suggest that Speight gave no sigh or hint of the violence he was about to commit, others date his emotional challenges to the 2006 death of his mother, noting that his father had allegedly abandoned them three decades before. With the loss of his beloved mother, so, apparently, went his last hold on sanity with him sliding down into a depression from which he would never emerge. Family members were also aware of a 2007 mental breakdown Speight had undergone and an ongoing learning disability with a history of mental issues. Within the past few months, Speight’s sister and her family moved into the three-bedroom home she and Speight had inherited from their mother, one that Speight had lived in alone until his sister needed a place for her family to live in these tough economic times.

Neighbors who knew Speight and his sister suggest that they got along like peas and carrots, but something had to set Speight off. For some mentally challenged individuals who commit such crimes, their actions are perceived by them to be defensive verses offensive in nature. While described by those who knew him as a quiet man who was otherwise preoccupied with government conspiracies, black helicopters and guns, he may have believed his way of life threatened when his sister moved her family into the house that was his last place of refuge from the threatening outside world. After all, he and his sister had tried to sell the house and over 30 acres. After getting no offers, Speight probably settled in, believing the home was his for life. Now he had to share the house with at least four other people with more to come.

Speight, known for taking target practice in and around his home, had increased the time he spent involved in such activities, to include nighttime shooting. While he may have simply been letting off emotional steam, he could have also been feeling pressure and experiencing increasing loss of control in his own life. When he no longer had the emotional resources to deal with his own paranoia, he struck out against those he may have believed threatened him. The four non-family member victims, a 43-year-old couple, their 15-year-old daughter and the daughter’s boyfriend, were simply visiting his sister’s family at the time. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, “collateral damage” as Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeight might have said. While the presence of eight people in his otherwise quiet home may have finally set him off, we know that such overwhelming anger, frustration, rage and even fear build up over time and, unfortunately, can be expressed as violence in many situations.

Authorities searched the house and surrounding acreage and found dozens of weapons, ammunition, food caches and explosive devices that had been hidden by Speight in his ongoing preparation for disaster. Such could also have been an expression of his belief that he would somehow eventually need to defend his home and property from attack. In the final accounting of motive, though, only the shooter himself can tell authorities his reason for taking eight lives, to include that of a 4-year-old child. His life was spinning out of control and he simply was not capable of dealing with his new circumstances and roommates. In his case, motive for murder.

Of interest was the fact that Speight was wearing a bullet-proof vest at the time of his arrest, but he was not carrying a firearm when he surrendered to authorities, this after hiding in the nearby woods overnight. It appears that while he may not have understood the full extent of his actions and what his responsibilities would be after murdering eight people, he was aware enough to shoot down a state police helicopter, wear a bullet resistant vest to protect himself in a shootout, hide from authorities and then surrender in a manner that would allow him to survive. While many knew he was a challenged man, apparently few if any sought to help him or were able to get through his many layers of emotional defense. In the end, who really knows the true potential for evil that lurks in the heart of a man?