This was shocking when it happened two years ago. A young man, after a night of bar hopping, ran into a ditch in rural Waseca, in south central Minnesota. He went into the nearest farmhouse and shot the father, thirteen year old son, and the mother. Only the mother survived. What was the motive? Was there a motive?
Last month the murderer, Michael Zabawa, went on trial. It was a short trial. A guilty verdict was quickly reached. A motive was not discussed.
Turns out the murderer was raised in the surrounds of the militia movement linked to McVeigh. A Minneapolis Star & Tribune columnist, Jon Tevlin, did the background research over a period of months that led to this column: http://www.startribune.com/... Please read the entire column, the following is an excerpt, emphasis mine.
....
From the time Michael was just a toddler, his father was a member of the Posse Comitatus and other violent anti-government groups. He even spent time in the same compound as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. He traveled around the Midwest, moved covertly by the posse as he conspired with others to kill authorities. Federal agents tracked him the entire time, and FBI documents paint a scary picture of a man capable of anything.
....
During a chilling interview with the FBI, he [father, Donald Zabawa] outlined his association with the Christian Patriots Defense League. Of one associate, the elder Zabawa said, "They have two fully automatic converted AR-15s and a couple of cases of baseball grenades. I have seen an ammo can full of booby trap mechanisms with blasting caps. [A friend] wants to kill Jews, cops, judges, lawyers and everyone who doesn't agree with him."
... I found a former sheriff in Kansas who had arrested Zabawa. When I told him that Zabawa's son had been arrested for murder, he said, "I'm not surprised one bit."Donald Zabawa bragged of his friendship with James Wickstrom, the leader of the Christian Identity movement of the 1980s.
"He said to arm myself and prepare for the war between the Posse and the system," Zabawa told the FBI. "He said the movement is going to overthrow the government by force."
There are no shortage of poor parents, but I do believe that growing up amidst a group that depersonalized other groups and said they deserved to be killed, permitted Michael Zabawa to do what he did.