The New Mexico teen who shot three elderly women last week struggled with his mental health as he tried to cope with his parents’ ongoing divorce and his recent departure from the high school wrestling team, a new report says.
Beau Wilson, 18, fired a volley of shots on a residential street in Farmington, New Mexico, hours before he was due to graduate from high school last Monday. The violent episode ended in his death after being shot by police.
Authorities have said that an interview with his family and a note in his pocket indicate that Wilson had mental health problems.
NBC news reported that Wilson also struggled academically, especially after leaving the wrestling team.
According to one of his former teammates, Wilson left the team in late February mainly due to a strained relationship with the head coach.
Beau Wilson, 18, a student at Farmington High School, has been identified as the gunman who opened fire on multiple homes in New Mexico, killing and wounding six others
Lorry Rodriguez, Wilson’s mother, said her late son had relied on the wrestling team to keep him anchored as his home and academic life were in jeopardy.
“His life was going to practice, and if he didn’t have that, he didn’t have anything,” she said. “He had nothing to work for. That’s all he knew.’
Rodriguez blamed herself for being blind to the violence her son committed against innocent victims. She said she knew he had bought a gun, but wasn’t too worried about it.
‘How did I not know? I wonder,” she said.
She added that while her son was never formally diagnosed with a mental illness, he was “shy,” “isolated,” and socially anxious.
At the time of the shooting, Wilson was living with his father in a home that law enforcement said contained an arsenal of guns and ammunition, apparently legal property. He bought an assault rifle last year after turning 18.
Six weeks after leaving the wrestling team, Beau reportedly dropped out of school.
An anonymous person close to Wilson told NBC that leaving the team “absolutely crushed him.”
It was his identity. It was his happy place, where he had nothing to worry about and felt involved. And then that is gone in one fell swoop, while he has that other difficult time. I’m sure this has greatly exacerbated this,” the person said.
Police at the scene of a shooting on North Dustin Avenue in Farmington Monday
Former teammates said Wilson’s mental health issues were obvious, but the teen was reluctant to share details about his personal life or talk about his feelings.
“I tried to talk to him about it, but he wouldn’t talk about it,” says 18-year-old Ivan Smith Jr., a former captain of the team who just graduated college.
Authorities said a doorbell camera on Monday caught Wilson yelling, “come and kill me” during his rampage. He wore a bulletproof vest that he took off before officers shot him dead in a cemetery.
Despite new information, law enforcement have not yet publicly discussed or revealed a motive for the shocking and tragic shooting that killed Shirley Voita, 79, Melody Ivie, 73, and Gwendolyn Schofield, 97.
Each of the victims was driving by on the usually quiet street when they were hit by bullets.
After shooting the women, Wilson walked down the street about a quarter mile, indiscriminately firing bullets from two handguns.
He fired a .22 caliber gun and then used rounds from a 9mm weapon in the final shootout with police, during which he fired at least 18 rounds.
He was wearing what appeared to be a modified protective vest with steel plates, but authorities say he disposed of the vest before the shootout with police.
Police CCTV footage showed the perspective of a cop walking and running down the middle of the residential street, readying an assault rifle in one hand while barking commands into a radio in the other. On the run, he follows signals from a local resident and a dog runs alongside them.
That video is later partially obscured, but a shadow on the ground shows the officer bracing into firing position for the final confrontation.
“I have my eye on the suspect. He’s heading south. He is dressed all in black,” an officer tells dispatchers in another video clip.
He then yells, “Farmington Police! Show me your hands!’
A police car races by with flashing lights and sirens.
Video from the body camera of Sgt. Rachel Discenza showed herself aiming her gun at the spot where the suspect was standing. In the midst of gunfire, she falls to the ground and says, “I was shot.”
She struggles unsuccessfully to get to her feet, and a fellow cop uses her belt as a tourniquet.
“We’ve got one hit. Get a medic here for sergeant,’ he shouts.
In the grass in front of the church, officers rush to the suspect after the gunfire has died down and tell him not to move. One officer handcuffs him, while another says, “Subject is on the ground. He’s secured.’
Wilson legally purchased one of the three firearms used in the November shooting, but police believe the other two belonged to a relative.
He attacked at least six different homes in the neighborhood he grew up in, across what police described as a “nearly quarter-mile crime scene.”
Community members hold candles during a prayer vigil at Hills Church on May 15 in Farmington
Farmington City Council members Jeanine Bingham-Kelly, second from left, Linda Rodgers, center, and Sean Sharer, right, participate in a vigil at Hills Church Farmington on Monday
A witness told a local outlet that he saw the gunman fire more than 100 rounds within the first 20 minutes of the attack.
In a video message Monday, Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said the suspect had “wandered” the neighborhood before randomly spraying bullets at cars in homes during the attack.
Six people were also injured in the shooting, including Farmington Police Sergeant Rachel Discenza and New Mexico State Police Officer Andreas Stamatiadis, who were both taken to San Juan Regional Medical Center.
Stamatiadis has been treated and released from the hospital, while Discenza recovers from a wound to her pelvis.