Larry Gene Ashbrook

Larry Gene Ashbrook (born 1952) was an American mass murderer. On September 15 1999, he murdered seven people and injured a further seven at a concert by Christian Rock group Forty Days at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Ashbrook then committed suicide.

The Shooting
Ashbrook interrupted a teen prayer rally at the Wedgwood Baptist Church spouting anti-Baptist rhetoric before opening fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and a .380-caliber handgun. He reloaded several times during the shooting; three empty magazines were found at the scene. Seven people were killed, four of whom were teenagers, a 14 year old boy, two 14 year old girls & a 17 year old boy. Three people sustained major injuries while four others received relatively minor injuries.

At Ashbrook's home, police found a pipe, end caps to enclose the pipe, gunpowder and a fuse. Ashbrook had thrown a pipe-bomb into the church, but this exploded vertically, and did not injure anyone.

Mental State
Police investigating the shooting could find no solid motive for the crime. In the months before the shooting, people who knew Ashbrook say he became increasingly paranoid, certain that he was being framed for serial murder and other crimes that he did not commit. He also feared that the CIA were targeting him, and he reported psychological warfare, assaults by co-workers and being drugged by the police. Just days before the shooting he voiced these concerns to a newspaper, saying "I want someone to tell my story, no one will listen to me; no one will believe me."

Personality
Nine years before the shooting, Ashbrook's mother died. This reportedly sent him into a cycle of erratic and frightening behaviour. Ashbrook lived for many years with his father, Jack D. Ashbrook. Across the street from the Ashbrooks' home, neighbours said they saw Ashbrook treat his father violently but were afraid to report it. City newspaper-editor Stephen Kaye, whom Ashbrook had visited days before the shooting, described him as being "the opposite of someone who'd be concerned about", saying he "couldn't have been any nicer".

However, his neighbours had an entirely different view of him, describing him as strange and violent. Investigators at his house discovered that he had virtually destroyed the interior of his house, and remarked that he seemed very troubled.