Did a doctor start Natalie Rupnow, the alleged Madison, WI shooter, on psych meds or switch her meds before her murders? Did she stop psych meds she had been on? In 20 years of reporting on gun violence I have rarely heard of a mass shooter whose violence wasn't connected to psych drugs.
Most people remember that Eric Harris, one of the two shooters at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 (which ushered in the current spate of mass shootings) was on the psych drug Luvox.
But what about others? Here is quick overview:
Jeff Weise who fatally shot his grandfather, his grandfather's girlfriend and seven people at the Red Lake Senior High School in 2005, was on the antidepressant Prozac.
Two years later, in 2007, Cho Seung-Hui ,who killed 32 and wounded 17 at Virginia Tech, was on psych drugs.
The next year, in 2008, Steven Kazmierczak, who fatally shot seven at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb had been prescribed Prozac which he had recently stopped.
In 2012, "Batman" James Holmes who fatally shot 12 and wounded scores was on psych drugs. *
In 2013, Aaron Alexis fatally shot 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard in southeast Washington, D.C. less than a month after being prescribed the psych drug trazodone.
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