Aspies For Freedom

Investigators say they may never know why a 19-year-old man dressed in a dark cape and paintball mask went on a shooting rampage in an upscale community, killing two neighbors and himself.

William Freund, described as a loner, used a 12-gauge shotgun Saturday to kill a neighbor and her father, who lived just 100 yards away, police said. Freund then fired into a separate house and aimed his gun at another neighbor before returning home and committing suicide.

"The motive may never be known," Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. "It may have been a random thing. What set him off is the big question we're trying to find out."

The victims were identified as Christina Smith, 22, and her father, Vernon Smith, 45.

Police said there was no known link between Freund and the Smiths except that they were neighbors in the large subdivision in the hills above Aliso Viejo, a wealthy section of south Orange County.

Amormino said investigators found no evidence that Freund had been using drugs or alcohol, but added that toxicology tests would take several weeks to complete.

Freund lived with his parents and had been unemployed since graduating from high school in 2003, Amormino said.

Police did not know where Freund bought the weapon or whether it was legally purchased. They said his parents told them they had no clue he had been keeping a gun in their house.

The violence occurred Saturday morning when Freund drove the short distance to the Smiths' house. A 20-year-old son escaped after hearing shots.

Freund then walked across the street and fired into another house, where an occupant suffered cuts from broken glass, Amormino said.

Freund tried to fire at a neighbor who came outside after hearing the commotion, but the gun misfired, Amormino said. Freund went home and killed himself with the same firearm.

"It's without a doubt very bizarre behavior," Amormino said.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topst...ryid=46414

An additional shocking aspect to this story is that the murderer was an aspie who was a member of wrongplanet, and actually posted about his guns, in one post from Oct 19 he posted -

"I bought my gun from a bunch off old farts at a gun center....Well I went To go buy my ammunition today online,So I could get the most powerful specialized ammo(HS HV 1 or #2),that most shops wouldnt carry at 5-8$ a shell. Out off the blue I was reading a articule these guys all they do for there life Is sell and trade guns. I felt really bad About going off and useing their gun I got from the Owner! When his only Idea for fun , his life goal was to create a old western style gun shop.Out off all the newport and laguna beach gunshops Ive never seen a shop with wood guns, filled with .22 caliber, and for some reason A bunch of modern remakes off black powder and Henry rifles.It mad me cry a little and now im grief strucken and now I think the only thing to do it go admit myself to a hospital.I have alot more problems then depression, I need counsulling + social skill training.I feel like i need to killmyself, want to admit myself, But alas google maps has 6 kinds of mental hospitals , Id like to figure out what kind allows you to get away from the stress off the world for a bit. Or give me a hospital reference.... I life In orange county by Laguna beach and costa mesa"

He seems to clearly say that he is suicidal, is buying large amounts of ammunition and is desperate for help. Lessons really need to be learnt from this for the whole aspie/autie community.
Was this preventable in some way? Was he crying for help directly through his posts?
Some have now posted that they simply assumed he was a troll and ignored these posts.
He had started threads such as 'I need a real life friend..ok to ask', and 'OK I think I'd actually like to get help', just days before the murders.

In one post from a few days ago it is now harrowing to read in light of what ultimately happened, it simply says "I have no friends I wish I had some" with many exclamation marks for emphasis.
Its so tragic that isolated, terribly lonely aspies with serious mental health issues like this person had, are NOT getting the help they need, and having no-one to communicate with in real life about it.



:cry:

While some tried to urge him to talk to his parents, or dial 911 when he made a suicide threat, one person actually posted this to him on a thread where he states he is suicidal -

Suicide's the latest craze. Personally, I recommend you jump on the bandwagon without delay!
Kill yourself somewhere where lots of people will see you then. You won't be anonymous anymore! You'll be in the local newspapers the next day!


This poster must not have realised that it was a real cry for help, what way can we ensure that people who are in immediate desperate need have somewhere to turn?
Would we be more likely to phone a specific autism related helpline rather than the police, or a group like the Samaritans in the UK, or similar suicide line in other countries?

We have had threats, mainly on the chatroom, and have done everything we can to talk to them, offer help, and if necessary try and contact real life authorities.
The same for people suffering from violence or abuse.

I wonder if it is feasible to have a hotline for people on the spectrum who may feel more comfortable talking to other aspies and auties, rather than a general suicide hotline that may not understand all the issues we face.

Noetic, he had already mentioned doing something on halloween, so it seems that it was already a plan and not related to the site being down.
There are technical things that people can do in order to help trace someone to get them real life help.
It is well known that a trace can be tried through isp, or a note taken of it and message sent via the isp to authorities.
Also Willfreund gave people his email, and other details, and some people knew his location. All of that would be enough to attempt real life help.

I am not saying anyone is to blame, but that was it preventable by the online community as a whole, and his real life community.

I think its worse to say its tragic and nothing could be done to stop it, when his intentions were very clear, rather than actually look at what happened and say what could be changed to make a difference in the future.

"The problem in cases like these is that the only people who know of such a person's intentions are people on (more or less) anonymous websites (who are in addition usually bound by confidentiality agreements - thus are by law not allowed to track someone down and forward what a person posted to their parents etc. - and only rarely have any realistic chances of being able to contact a person privately or contacting their parents)."

I don't think that a forum or website is bound by law not to inform authorities if a person is thought to be in real danger of hurting themselves, and/or others. The same goes for chatrooms where a persons isp is visible to others.

There is no requirement in law to keep IP addresses private, unless there is an agreement beforehand of privacy.

I think on forums only mods can see, but in chatrooms they are publically visible in 99% of them.

Maybe she was referring to, or referencing the fact that it was allowed on wrongplanet.
We would not allow graphic posts about self harm or suicide, if someone did ask for help we would try and help, but do it in private rather than publically.

An ISP cannot by law reveal customer information without a search warrant, in the UK this is covered by the data protection act. However, an IP address is not personal information - if somebody was hiding behind a proxy and paying the proxy admin to keep their real location secret it would be breach of contract for the proxy admin to reveal any information.

People would not ask the isp for information, they would contact the isp and inform them of the situation and ask if the police or relatives could be notified. An isp would not give out any information to a random person who contacted them.

Well if it was serious and evidence could be shown, such as an email, post etc, then I think they may take action. If they didn't shame on them, and its better to at least try.

To me, the posts about guns were coherent and a cause for alarm. I never read them until today, and I know its easy to look back at events, but I think that the total of his posts and pleas for help were showing something serious.

Also the chat logs that were posted gave strong indications, asking for help etc. (Not that I agree with the logs being posted after his death as he could not have agreed to it and is identified in them.)

That contradiction is in fact most disturbing. Do the authorities know about his posts at wrongplanet?

On wrongplanet they have an 11-page thread about this. Noetic - are you saying that they are allowed to discuss what happened and people here aren't allowed to discuss it and give opinions?

willfreund's name does appear in the member list, but he never posted, we never saw him view the site and he never used the chatroom. It seems unlikely he ever accessed the site after joining.