He was denied leave last Fall when his mother died. He had to beg for it. They gave him 24 hours. Then they changed it to 48 hours. Then I bet they did not approve paying for his travels due to sequestration. There is more to his snapping. But it will trickle out, I am sure. And I am speculating about the paying for travel part.
There are two facts that tell me a lot about the shooter.
1st fact: Having issues with leave.
- The Army is all about family when stateside. The fact that he had so much trouble with leave tells me his chain of command did not like him at all. Those reasons are unclear, but from experience, when a soldier has those kind of issues with leave is because he is a dirtbag soldier.
2nd fact: Being a Specialist so long.
- He was in the Infantry. Even if you are a dirtbag, eventually you are going to be promoted. You are going to get enough points over time, and when you are next on the list, they cannot pass you up unless you deny the promotion or have unfavorable action. The only issue he would of had that wouldn’t be his fault is any interstate transfer or him going active. He would have had to wait a year to be on the the promotion list.
Those two things are all I need to know about the guy. He was a POS soldier. Any Army veteran who has been in more than 3-4 years could tell you the same thing.
I didn’t know about the earlier leave denial when his mother died. Fits a scenario of one rejection being piled on another. Starts to form a pattern that pushed him over the edge.