Florida’s school board shooter Facebook posted a Profile before attack

Florida’s school board shooter Clay Duke had started his personal Facebook profile a week before attacking on December 15.

You might have heard the story or seen the video by now: At a Bay County school board meeting in Panama City, Florida, 56-year-old Clay Duke addressed the audience for a few minutes before using a can of red spray to write a huge V letter on the wall, revealing a semi-automatic handgun, and taking the male board members hostage.

He opened fire, a SWAT team broke in, and ultimately Duke was killed. Nobody else was injured, but watching the video footage leading up to his death is pretty terrifying.

Duke’s breakdown was hardly random, though, and his Facebook profile, which was taken down Wednesday evening, tells the story of a man who was a fan of anarchist cult classic V for Vendetta and posted links to a bunch of conspiracy-theory websites.

His profile picture in fact was a red circled “V,” like the one he’d end up writing on the school’s wall. In the book, a mysterious revolutionary man called simply “V” attempts to take down a totalitarian government. Clay Duke’s “About Me” does reference the comic book’s spirit, but it also reveals a man who was already close to the edge of sanity:

“My Testament: Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V)… no… I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rich Republicans, Rich Democrats… same-same… rich… they take turns fleecing us… our few dollars… pyramiding the wealth for themselves. The 95%… the us, in US of A, are the neo slaves of the Global South. Our Masters, the Wealthy, do, as they like to us…”

Under the “Religion” section, Duke described himself as a “Humanist,” and considered himself a “Freedom Fighter” under his political views. He also quoted various other dramatic and strong statements about class warfare and freeing the working class from their oppressors.

As is becoming common with shocking news stories, Facebook has seen, since yesterday, a number of Community and Group Pages being created to discuss Clay Duke’s significance, but perhaps what’s most surprising is that some are calling him a “hero” and a “martyr.” The most popular one seemed to be “R.I.P. Clay Duke, a Martyr for Class Warfare,” which without an ounce of sarcasm condoned the man’s actions (better said, the way he dealt with his frustrations). As of this morning, the page seems to have been removed from Facebook, but here is the disturbing profile picture (check the caption too):

Other pages, however, were created solely for the purpose of condemning the man, for example, “Clay Duke is NOT your hero” and “Clay Duke is NOT a Martyr: Martyrs aren’t idiots.” More than 1,000 people had joined these pages by the time of this writing. And then there is a pretty funny one called “Fans of Ginger Littleton’s Purse,” in reference to the woman who naively but heroically went back inside the classroom and tried to stop the 200-pound-man by hitting him with her purse. Miraculously, he didn’t hurt her. The page had also gathered around a thousand fans.

(Note: The picture of Clay Duke is actually from a replica of his original profile. Someone probably anticipated the original would be taken down soon. This “Clay Duke,” also, impossibly joined his own commemorative Facebook Page “R.I.P. Clay Duke, a Martyr for Class Warfare.”)