Sylvia Seegrist

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She shot and killed 3 people, wounding 7 others at a shopping mall in 1985 before she was disarmed by a man shopping at the store. She used a Ruger 10/22 rifle that she bought at another store after the Kmart that she tried before buying it had rejected giving one to her because her behavior was so disconcerting.

She was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia 10 years prior to the murders and spent visits to mental wards at least a dozen times, with the first time she was committed being at age 16.

She idolized mass shooters, and she spent a great amount of time at the Springfield Mall harassing other customers and making statements about how “good” other spree killings were, such as the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre committed by James Oliver Huberty.

She was discharged from the army after two years because of her unusual behavior that included sitting fully dressed in green fatigues at the spa and sauna of her fitness club. An instructor at the fitness club said “she hated everyone and would often talk about shooting and killing people.”

While she was in the army, she often faced bullying and harassment on her platoon because they thought she was a lesbian so they once set her up on a prank date and made her the butt of many jokes soon after.

As a child, she was molested by her paternal grandfather, who, when her mother recounted this during court, she responded that her mother didn’t “know how intimate our relationship was”.