With the Holidays upon us, it looks like the hostage drama in Virginia passed by without notice. While in the end the standoff ended peacefully (thankfully), the details are starting to emerge about the alleged perpetrator and it looks like he might be another right wing wacko that has gone over the edge.
Excerpts from AP's accounting follow below.
WYTHEVILLE, Va. – Warren "Gator" Taylor was tired of driving, so he pulled off the interstate in this Blue Ridge Mountain town to buy gas and food. The Tennessee man had been angry at the government for months, even years, federal officials said Thursday, and this seemed like as good a place as any to use the handguns and mock explosives he had packed in his beloved red pickup....
"There was no mission statement. No demands made. No purpose in what he was doing. There was no reason for any of it," said Jimmy Oliver, 41, one of the hostages, who spoke with The Associated Press at his mother's floral shop. "He just wanted to destroy a federal building with a lot of people."
It seems as though Gator Taylor was mad that the government was going to take his guns. He reportedly also was upset with high taxes and President Obama.
The gunman said he had no money, and his 2007 red Dodge diesel pickup truck was about to be repossessed. Mostly, he railed against the government — high taxes, gun control, and President Barack Obama.
"He was really down on the government," Oliver said. "About the government taking over the right to bear arms ... he was angry at the government overtaxing us."
The thing is it is apparent that Taylor didn't have a lot of money, so he probably wasn't paying much in taxes. This guy has Ditto Head / tea bagger written all over him.
Merry Christmas everybody.