Rants Found In Western Psych Gunman's Apartment
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Sources close to the Western Psych shooting investigation describe the gunman's apartment as a trove of madness and hate.
News of the findings has shaken the Royal York apartment building in Oakland.
In the wake of the rampage, investigators sifting through John Shick's fourth floor apartment have carried out bags of evidence indicating a premeditated attack – maps of street routes and diagrams of floor plans accompanied by reams of Shick's writings.
Taped to the walls and filling journals were hateful rants -- mostly targeting physicians who he believed had misdiagnosed his ailments.
The day before the shootings, dental student Melissa Fogel says she saw Shick yelling in the lobby making those same complaints.
"Something about him having a disease and that no one was listening or something and it was going subcutaneous," she said.
Like others, Fogel thought Shick and the outburst odd, but it all made sense after police identified Shick as the shooter.
"I saw his picture in the paper and that was him and then they talked about – he had fanny packs I think they said and I recall that," Fogel said. "He had double – two – one on top of the other."
Investigators found no less than 43 different prescription drugs ranging from psychotropics to pills for erectile dysfunction, as well as a bizarre sign on his door saying he was cleaning up vomit from pancreatitis.
But what was most striking were the volumes of his writing which indicated someone of high intelligence going off the rails and bent on action.
"I still feel very comfortable here, but it is odd to know that he lived right below me," Fogel said. "What if I had given him a weird look in the lobby that day? I don't know. Did he have anything with him that day? I don't know. "
Life will go on at the Royal York Apartments but for now uneasiness remains as the realization sinks in that for months residents have lived alongside madness and danger.
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