Justice

The Kansas Shooter's Facebook Posts Paint a Disturbing Picture

February 27th 2016

Cedric Larry Ford, the suspected culprit in a mass shooting in Hesston, Kansas on Thursday, had apparently posted videos and pictures of himself online posing with high-powered weapons, according to news reports.

Pictures posted on Ford's Facebook page show the 38-year-old, who was shot dead by police on Thursday, with a handgun and two higher caliber firearms. Ford was identified by eyewitnesses and employees at Excel Industries, where he reportedly worked as a painter, according to local and national news reports. Before opening fire at his workplace, Ford reportedly drove through two Kansas towns, taking random shot at people from his car, NBC reported.  
 

And video footage posted to the same Facebook page in September, 2015 allegedly shows Ford emptying rounds from an assault-style rifle into a dirt berm on the side of a road.

A comment posted after news of the shooting broke reads: "Wow I wonder what they did to piss Ced off[?]"

Facebook.com

The pictures and videos present a varied portrait of Ford — alternately an unwieldy gun owner and a loving father of two in pictures with small children at a zoo.

The motive behind the shooting that left three dead and at least 14 injured on Thursday is not yet clear, though CNN reports that local authorities had served Ford with a protective order earlier in the day, which may have sparked his outrage. 

"I believe that probably is the trigger, and it went from there," Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said Friday. — CNN

CBS reports that Ford's criminal record included "multiple burglary convictions, grand theft, fleeing from police, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and a prowling conviction."

Both the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the FBI were investigating multiple crime scenes linked to the shooting, and an investigation is pending, authorities said.

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