The 20-year-old shooter who entered a grocery store in Oregon on Sunday and used an AR-15 to kill two people kept a two-month online journal documenting the deterioration of his mental health. In this journal, he criticised America as a “fake” land of the free and laid out his plans for a massacre akin to the 1999 Columbine school shooting.
Authorities discovered Ethan Miller, a former student of Mountain View High School in Bend, Oregon, dead inside the shop. He had killed himself after attacking a Safeway there on August 28.
Before entering the building and shooting one person dead at the entryway, Miller blasted bullets from his automatic weapon in the parking lot while holding a rifle, a shotgun, and carrying two duffel bags of ammo.
The two fatalities have been named as Glen Bennett, 84, a customer who just happened to be in the shop, and Don Surrett, 66, a Safeway employee who served in the US Army.
Surrett has received praise for his valiant efforts to grab Miller’s rifle from him.
Miller opened fire on Surrett, then stalked down the aisles, killing Bennett at the rear of the shop before turning the pistol on himself.
However, Miller released an e-book titled “The Downward Spiral of Ethan Miller” with a two-month chronology leading up to the assault, an explanation of his strategy and driving forces, and a gallery comprising selfies and pictures of the weapons only hours before committing the horrible murder.
The shooter had an internet manifesto, according to many local media outlets in Oregon.
He admitted his actions were motivated by the infamous Columbine school shooting, raged against American society and its perceived fabrications of “freedom,” and claimed he had been rejected by women and would never find a woman as perfect as his imagined “soulmate” – though he insisted he “did not have anything against women” and was not a “incel.” He also revealed that his actions were influenced by the Columbine school shooting.
The last pages of Miller’s notebook reveal that he was driven with wrath and chose to carry out the assault more than a week early in a grocery shop. Miller had set September 8, 2022 as “Doomsday” and had meant to shoot up his old high school.
Around this time, he said in a part that the Fourth of July was “meaningless” because “NO FREEDOM IS LEFT IN THIS COUNTRY.” Miller said that he believed “power-hungry politicians” were responsible for the illusion of “freedom.”
Miller referred to himself as the “Quiet Kid with Anger Issues” as he described shooting up his school. But I’ve always been dangerous, he continued. “No nice thoughts of the school or the personnel there,” he said about Mountain View.
Although Miller’s old classmates expressed astonishment and incredulity on social media for his posting the diary online the same day a mass shooting happened in his hometown, the journal’s contents described his preparations and the tools he utilised in the attack in great detail.
Miller’s journal wasn’t released until the day of the assault, so it’s unknown if officials had flagged him as a possible threat.
Nearly two months to the day before the fatal shooting, Miller wrote the first post in the journal, indicating right away that he intended to give a thorough account of how and why he committed the “massacre.”
Miller referred to himself in the third person as “The Man” in his last post, which perfectly captured the depths of his loneliness and the scope of his dreams. He did this often throughout the journal. He also said he is entirely at peace and eager to meet his “soulmate.”
“The Man is at Peace.” He is prepared to start his new life. With Her…’
She is flawless. Just as He Was Made For Her, She Was Made For Him.
The Man has accepted what has happened and is prepared to be with her right away and begin his new life.
‘Tried to fight quite practically everyone’ at Mountain View High School as a student, according to former classmate Isaac Thomas, who spoke to The Associated Press. After a disagreement at their school, Thomas said that the shooter had threatened to shoot him.
The Oregonian was informed by Akela Haverlandt, 21, that the shooter was a classmate in math and physical education. According to Haverlandt’s account in the newspaper, Miller was once “violently hitting” a student in the corridor when she left class.
He was often the topic of conversation for getting into mischief, according to Haverlandt. She said, “I basically remember him as being quite aggressive. He was continually “creating commotion” and being suspended for fighting.
Haverlandt said that Miller messaged her on Instagram out of the blue and expressed his desire to establish a relationship with her. Miller referred to Haverlandt as being “hella gorgeous” in one communication. She said that she abruptly stopped the call following that.
Miller was pals with Portland State University football player Keenan Harpole, who is suspected of killing his girlfriend Amara Marluke nearby, according to Haverlandt and Miller.
In connection with the event, 20-year-old Harpole is accused with second-degree murder, domestic abuse, and unauthorised use of a firearm.
According to Police Chief Mike Krantz, it would take many days to review the contents discovered on the digital devices located in the gunman’s residence and to create a clearer picture.
“We have that knowledge. Numerous individuals have offered us follow-up information on what has been published on social media or in other places, and our investigators will go through it, draw those links (if they are indeed related), and make sure that the material we have is true,’ he added.
Federal investigators were also attempting to identify the gunman’s sources for the shotgun and AR-15-style weapon he took into the supermarket, whether those sources were lawful, and why the supermarket was the target of his fatal spree.
According to Bend police spokesperson Sheila Miller, who is not related to the gunman, they discovered three Molotov cocktails in his vehicle, as well as a sawed-off shotgun and more ammo, in his apartment.
The gunman had worked at the Safeway, according to Thomas, the former classmate, and Thomas had met him there two years before.
According to Heavy.com, his mother was a personnel coordinator at the shop. His mother Gail posted the following on her Facebook profile: “She forgive, but she won’t forget.” She is advancing to higher opportunities. ONLY LESSONS LEARNED, NO REGRETS.
Miller didn’t talk about his family all that much in his online journal. My Family LOVES Drama they are always so damn dramatic about the tiniest things… they would constantly find someone to blame and punish for [accidents],” he said in a rant.
Everyone else is right and I’m wrong, and my point of view has ALWAYS been utterly disregarded!
Despite their imperfections, I still have an unconditional affection for my family, but they undoubtedly contributed to my development in this manner.
According to the Heavy article, Miller’s mother congratulated him for winning a mixed martial arts competition on April 23.
The apartment building where the shooter resided is located behind The Forum Shopping Center.
According to witnesses, he started shooting as soon as he left the complex on Sunday evening and kept firing as he pulled into the parking lot of the shopping centre and then entered the Safeway.
About 160 miles southeast of Portland, Oregon, lies the city of Bend, which has a population of 97,000.