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U.S. gunman listed those “who done him wrong”

A man who killed at least 10 people in the southern U.S. state of Alabama, including the wife and daughter of a sheriff’s deputy who was chasing him, had trained as a police officer and recently quit a job at a meat products distributor. It was revealed that the gunman, named as 28-year-old Michael McLendon, had kept a list of those “who done him wrong”.

After nearly a full day of investigation, officials had pieced together an account of the violence. The killing began just before 3.30 p.m. when McLendon shot his mother, killed her four dogs and set her house on fire in rural Kinston.

He travelled about 10 miles to Samson, where he opened fire on relatives gathered on his uncle’s porch, killing the uncle, two cousins, the wife and 18-month-old daughter of a sheriff’s deputy and his grandmother at a house next door, police said. McLendon drove off in his car, killed at least three others seemingly at random and injured three police officers who tried to intervene.

The bloodshed ended when McLendon retreated into a metal products plant in Geneva, about 12 miles from Samson. After exchanging gunfire with two police officers, he killed himself.

“He cleaned his family out,” Coffee county coroner Robert Preachers told the Associated Press. “We don’t know what triggered it.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

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