College Shares Chilling Details of Loughner's Behavior

Paperwork documents his multiple run-ins with campus police
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2011 7:50 AM CST
College Shares Chilling Details of Loughner's Behavior
This undated yearbook photo released by the Marana Unified School District and published in the Mountain View High School, Marana, Ariz., yearbook shows Jared L Loughner.   (AP Photo/Marana Unified School District)

Jared Loughner’s bizarre behavior before the Tucson shootings is already well-documented, and more details are emerging. Documents released by his community college yesterday relate a number of disturbing classroom incidents that caught officials' attention; campus police had seven run-ins with Loughner over seven months. Via the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal:

  • During a discussion about abortion in poetry class, Loughner said that dynamite should be attached to babies. He later discussed the incident in an online gaming forum: “I mention about the BBC Jihad Teenager soccer bombs! I then mention Incest in poetry!"
  • He argued with a teacher that the number 6 was actually the number 18, asking, “How can you deny math instead of accept it?”
  • A police guard was assigned to stand outside the classroom of one instructor who feared that Loughner might resort to physical violence

  • His behavior during confrontations is often described as odd; during one, he “smiled overtly at inappropriate times,” during another, his “head was constantly tilted to the left and his eyes were jittery and looking up and to the left."
  • He had multiple confrontations over grades that left his teachers upset; his gym teacher, who angered him with her plans to give him a B, said he intimidated her and she feared physical violence.
  • Teachers and students described Loughner as “creepy,” “very hostile,” suspicious,” and said he had a “dark personality.” Officials believed he could be mentally ill or using drugs.
  • He was finally suspended after the college discovered a YouTube video in which a narrator, presumed to be Loughner, talked about his “genocide school” and said, “We are examining the torture of students.”
  • Two officers delivered news of his suspension to Loughner’s home, and were so concerned they requested two backup officers be in the area.
Click for more on the Tucson shootings. (More Jared Lee Loughner stories.)

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