Stabbing in Brentwood-5 Dead, 1 Arrested

[morgin]

Originally Posted by jg13

It's such an uneasy feeling I can't really put it into words..

Understanding this is all still speculative, the most unease I have right now is that based on everything that has come out so far about the suspect, he actually sounds like he could have just been a normal dude who posted on cpuck. Parents sound normal, dad is a veteran cop who sits on a few community boards in a leadership role, guy sounds like he had a bunch of friends. He successfully navigated undergrad and was successful enough to allegedly get accepted to u of c law, which is not an easy feat by any measure.

If this all turns out to be the case, and it turns out that there is an element of of mental illness at play, and especially if it's something that has recently developed, then I'm pretty terrified at how flawed our ability as a society is to detect the symptoms of mental illness and respond accordingly. It also puts me at odds with what I assume is a fairly normal emotional reaction, which is "this guy needs to be taken away from society forever, ASAP". That's all fine and good, but if the reality is that one day this could be someone I know and like with an undiagnosed mental disorder, then suddenly I'm a lot more conflicted.

Again, this whole post is based on the tidbits of info that have come out and is speculative, but this guy seemed to be in the best possible position anyone could hope for if he was to develop some early adult onset mental illness like schizophrenia. He's surrounded by peers at university studying the mind and mental disorders, he's likely got a good or at least decent support network to have the tools available to successfully study for and get a high LSAT score and get the grades to be accepted to law school (again, speculative but statistically true), he's got a job and would interact with co-workers, and if he had any relationship with his parents which we don't know yet, one would think his dad would have some experience with mental illness having policed for 30 years. In short, if the tidbits that have come out so far paint an accurate picture, it sounds like he's apparently not some isolated recluse who never interacted with anyone.

If all of that is true, then honestly I'm all on board with being subjected to a really prolonged and heavy education campaign on mental illness and symptoms to watch for if the professional medical psych community thinks that would help. Not to negate what this guy did or shift blame, or even suggest that anyone should have picked up on him if he was indeed afflicted with some sort of illness, but the alternative answer, which is that some people just break and suck and we learn to live with that, terrifies me.

Maybe the speculation coming out is way off base and this will end up being some totally competant person who managed to fool everyone and is actually just a horrible human being. I dunno.

Either way, there are 5 dead young adults who didn't deserve this. What an awful situation. I feel for anyone personally affected by this - I honestly don't know how you could even begin to start dealing with it.

[stignasty]

Originally Posted by prime333

This guy should be getting the death penalty.

No.

[Daradon]

Good post morgin.

From what I've read and heard so far this doesn't feel like a mental illness issue (not that I'd be an expert anyway), but as you said, we only have tidbits#so far.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Good post morgin.

From what I've read and heard so far this doesn't feel like a mental illness issue (not that I'd be an expert anyway), but as you said, we only have tidbits#so far.

Based on the info available I'd lean more towards mental illness than away from it.

Otherwise it's a (seemingly) normal guy, with a good upbringing and a lot going for him that snapped and committed the largest mass murder in our city's history.

I agree with Rube, that the rampant speculation is pretty useless at this point, but if you were going to lean a certain way, I'd say some sort of mental illness would be the most likely case.

[Baaarrden]

The remaining victims have been identified.

The five victims of a shocking stabbing spree at a house in Brentwood have been identified.

They are:
Lawrence Hong
Josh Hunter
Kaitlin Perras
Zackariah Rathwell
Jordan Segura

I don't know any of them personally, but I have mutual friends with most of them. My cousin had just talked to Zackariah in the last week and said he was a really good guy. Can't even imagine how devastating this is for their families and friends.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1273705/5-...ee-identified/

On my way home last night I passed the scene where the kid was arrested and there were a bunch of cop cars but I never would have imagined it would have been something this bad.

[dissentowner]

Thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. My thoughts are also with a fellow officer in this tough time

[MrMastodonFarm]

Crazy stuff. Pretty sure I've seen him working at the Brentwood Safeway on several occasions.

[Husky]

Sad day. Just seems weird for someone to "snap" especially on a party filled day. My gut tells me there is more to the story....either way murder is not justified.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Good post morgin.

From what I've read and heard so far this doesn't feel like a mental illness issue (not that I'd be an expert anyway), but as you said, we only have tidbits#so far.

anyone willing to murder 5 people in cold blood has a metal health issue...they are obviously bat#### crazy

[zamler]

Originally Posted by dino7c

anyone willing to murder 5 people in cold blood has a metal health issue...they are obviously bat#### crazy

Yep. I HATE when it is brought up that a murderer (a mass one in this case no less) may have been mentally ill. No they are mentally ill. How many perfectly balanced and stable people have killed 5 people in cold blood.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by T@T

Why is that? I give my head a shake at todays kids because they seem to need weapons to feel tough, House party scraps have been happening since the term house has been used but stabbings at them are becoming less rare. Back in the day fights were very common but lasted 5 minutes and it was back to partying, hell, I remember people using crazy glue to stop the bleeding on cuts to knuckles

I don't even mind saying it, Kids today are wimps, they don't know what a good scrap is and when they loose they get all sucky and seek a weapon thinking they can actually win that way.

At 43 I beat the piss out of this 22 year old muscle bound punk because he jumped threw my sunroof being an idiot in a parking lot. As the cops were dragging him away his ######ed girlfriend told me I better hide because he's going to cut me up like a rare steak when he gets out.

Just stupid!

43 and getting into fights with 22 yr olds and then bragging about it.

What the #### is wrong with you?

[FlamesPuck12]

This is so unreal. The suspect was in my class in Jr. High and he was a good friend back then. It's just so shocking to see him involved in this. He was such a nice guy and judging by my Jr. High and High school friends' posts on Facebook, they too seem really shocked and mortified that Matt was behind this given who we knew him as.

I haven't talked to him in recent years but everyone knows him as a really nice, friendly guy and he was just a normal kid. He was pretty smart academically, and from his Facebook post, he seemed like he was going into law school in the coming school year.

A couple days ago he made a couple Facebook posts which I've read and chuckled thinking Matt went crazy but I guess it seem like he did snap for some reason.

I also attended Bishop Carroll and a friend was telling me that she recognized the victims from attending the school at the same time. So unreal that this hit so close to home and made me feel uneasy this morning when I didn't know who the victims were. Texted my friends to make sure they were okay when I heard Matt was the suspect and the victims were 22-23 year olds that could've matched a lot of my friends.

So unreal... I feel really bad for the suspect's father as he seems to be getting all the unnecessary attention, especially given that this was his son. Feel even worse for the poor victims and their families. RIP fellow Carroll students.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

43 and getting into fights with 22 yr olds and then bragging about it.

What the #### is wrong with you?

well if the guy was vandalizing his car he has every right to tune him in...if you ask me. Kids with no respect bug the #### out of me, but that is a topic for another day

[zamler]

Pretty much every time a horrible act like this is committed, people say he was just a "normal guy". The take way I hope would be learned is that you don't really know someone and what they are capable of, no matter how much interaction you have with them.

That's not to say you should be suspicious of everyone and fear a horrific dark side that they may be hiding. But there seems to be a complete lack of understanding on how a seemingly well adjusted person could be so evil. It's because people can become masters of hiding their true self, and tragically that "true self" is sometimes a person that is capable of acting on their darkest thoughts.

[SportsJunky]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. My thoughts are also with a fellow officer in this tough time

Man, I didn't know you were a cop. This must be tough for all you guys.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Man, I didn't know you were a cop. This must be tough for all you guys.

I think he's a cop out in Ontario, and was speaking in general terms. Could be wrong, though.

[zamler]

This neighbourhood is extremely quiet, even that house which was a hub of activity compared to pretty much everything else around here was never even a "loud house" by any stretch. I didn't hear anything or know what was going on until I woke up. I walked by the house around 10:00pm (I do frequently with my dog) and there was stuff going on but didn't think anything of it, just a another night on the crescent.

Really shocking has not sunk in yet.

[Kelekin]

I posted earlier about feeling for the victims but I did not expect in the past hour to confirm one of them to be my friend. The worst part is, I think out of every single person I knew, and that's a lot of people, he was the only person who was permanently a ball of positivity and happiness. He definitely is someone who had no connection to the killer (and I can confirm that it would 100% not be about a girl) so it pretty much seems like he started killing aimlessly.

Terrible day for Calgary and these five people and their families.

[SportsJunky]

Originally Posted by FlamesPuck12

This is so unreal. The suspect was in my class in Jr. High and he was a good friend back then. It's just so shocking to see him involved in this. He was such a nice guy and judging by my Jr. High and High school friends' posts on Facebook, they too seem really shocked and mortified that Matt was behind this given who we knew him as.

I haven't talked to him in recent years but everyone knows him as a really nice, friendly guy and he was just a normal kid. He was pretty smart academically, and from his Facebook post, he seemed like he was going into law school in the coming school year.

A couple days ago he made a couple Facebook posts which I've read and chuckled thinking Matt went crazy but I guess it seem like he did snap for some reason.

I also attended Bishop Carroll and a friend was telling me that she recognized the victims from attending the school at the same time. So unreal that this hit so close to home and made me feel uneasy this morning when I didn't know who the victims were. Texted my friends to make sure they were okay when I heard Matt was the suspect and the victims were 22-23 year olds that could've matched a lot of my friends.

So unreal... I feel really bad for the suspect's father as he seems to be getting all the unnecessary attention, especially given that this was his son. Feel even worse for the poor victims and their families. RIP fellow Carroll students.

Can you give us an idea what kind of crazy posts he made recently? Weird crazy or violent crazy?

Edit - I found this online at the Sun's website -

The last entry on his Facebook account read: “Dread and the fugitive mind- the world needs a hero” apparently referencing two Megadeth songs.

[morgin]

Originally Posted by Kelekin

I posted earlier about feeling for the victims but I did not expect in the past hour to confirm one of them to be my friend. The worst part is, I think out of every single person I knew, and that's a lot of people, he was the only person who was permanently a ball of positivity and happiness. He definitely is someone who had no connection to the killer (and I can confirm that it would 100% not be about a girl) so it pretty much seems like he started killing aimlessly.

Terrible day for Calgary and these five people and their families.

I honestly am at a loss say anything to you other than I'm sorry about your friend and I wish you didn't have to go through this. Thanks for following up. If this community can help in any way possible, make sure to let us know.