Orlando Sentinel – by Mark Schlueb
Myron De’Shawn May’s life seemed to be the quintessential American story: He grew up poor, graduated from Florida State University with honors and worked his way through law school to build a career.
So how did a life with so much promise end with May striding onto the campus of FSU Thursday and shooting three people, only to be gunned down by police?
It’s a question state Rep. Matt Gaetz and many others were struggling with.
Gaetz knew May in 2002 as an undergraduate student at FSU, where he served in the student senate and was known as “Sensitive Joe.”
“He was so kind,” Gaetz tweeted. “This is just awful for everybody.”
A longtime friend Thursday described May as a “smiley, happy-go-lucky” person who at times “seemed a little down.”
But police painted a picture of a troubled man with paranoid journal entries. He also shared a conspiratorial video on Facebook about technology to plant voices in people’s heads.
May, a 31-year-old FSU alum and lawyer, was falling apart.
“Mr. May had a written journal and videos where he expressed fears of being targeted, and that he wanted to bring attention to this issue of targeting,” Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said. “The first preliminary review of these documents and videos demonstrate that Mr. May was in a state of crisis.”
May graduated from FSU in 2005 with a bachelor of science degree. The Texas Bar shows he went on to earn a law degree from Texas Tech University in 2009.
He practiced as an associate at a Houston firm before moving to practice in New Mexico.
Three weeks ago, he returned to the town where he grew up: Wewahitchka, about 30 minutes east of Panama City near Apalachicola National Forest.
He went to Tallahassee about a week ago to visit friends, said Abigail Taunton, the friend with whom May had been staying.
On Nov. 6, he posted an update on his Facebook page showing he’d returned to Wewahitchka, and many of his Facebook friends welcomed him back to Florida.
On his profile, May listed his occupation as in-house legal counsel at Taunton Family Children’s Home in Wewahitchka. But Taunton, who co-founded the children’s home with her husband, said May was a family friend, not an employee.
“He was staying in one of our guest houses. He’s a longtime friend, grew up with my kids,” said Taunton, who said Gulf County Sheriff’s deputies were at the children’s home today, looking at the guest house where May had been staying.
May grew up living with his grandmother, Taunton said. He grew close to Taunton’s sons, who attended school and ran cross-country with him at Wewahitchka High.
“He decided to come back home and was just staying with us temporarily while he found a place to rent. We were letting him do a little bit of research for us on this and that, to keep him busy while he was studying to take the [Florida] Bar exam in February.”
Taunton described May as generally a “smiley, happy-go-lucky” person who had times “when he seemed a little down.” But he didn’t seem angry.
“He was having some financial discomfort, filing bankruptcy, and seemed a little depressed about the situation — the fact that he’d left his job out there and decided he’d come here, and anxious a little bit about getting started on his own with his own practice,” she said.
“But nothing that would have indicated anything like today.”
Taunton said she hadn’t seen May since he left for Tallahassee about a week ago.
“He had given testimony in church two or three weeks ago about how God had blessed him and enabled him to get a law degree from nothing, and he didn’t have anything growing up as a child.
“He came from a poor family, had done well and was proud of the fact he’d done well,” Taunton said. “He must not have been in his right mind. Something went wrong somewhere.”
May’s Facebook page shows many posts of Biblical scripture, including the apparent last posting at 7:57 p.m. Tuesday: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matthew 5:3”
On Saturday, May twice posted a link to a video interview from the television show “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.”
The video features an interview with Dr. Robert Duncan, “who put together the technology that allows the government to transmit thoughts and voices into the heads of Americans.”
May shared the video with this comment: “IS OUR GOVERNMENT VIOLATING ORDINARY CITIZENS’ RIGHTS? UNFORTUNATELY, THE ANSWER IS YES! SEE INSIDE THIS VIDEO.”
May was also a member of a Facebook group called “Targeted Individuals International.” Targeted Individuals are people — often seen as conspiratorial or delusional — who contend they are targets of spying, harassment or abuse, sometimes by electromagnetic radiation weaponry.
“We have not found any information at this time about why he chose this morning to act or why he chose the Strozier Library as the place for his actions,” DeLeo said.
The answers to those questions likely died with May early Thursday morning on the sidewalk in front of the library.
Aaron Deslatte of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. mschlueb@tribune.com
Copyright © 2014, Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-myron-may-profile-shooter-20141120-story.html
Another ‘son’ of Obola!
they must have turned up the dial on this guy. for others, they keep it at a slow constant. I always wondered if the spraying just stopped how much more difficult it would be for the assholes to pull this off.
“The first preliminary review of these documents and videos demonstrate that Mr. May was in a state of crisis.”
State of crisis?
Just because he was paranoid doesn’t mean they weren’t after him.
Looks like they got to him, too.