Barry Loukaitis: Teenage Killer

Many people ask themselves "Why would a kid kill?" Yet many people cannot come to one assumption about the matter. There have been several theories that may serve as a means of explaining why a young teenage boy may creep into his parent's bedroom and brutally murder them; or why two high school seniors decided to take the lives of several of their peers, a teacher, and then themselves. The mass media has sparked a whole new world of controversy and debate within the past few decades concerning the excessive and extreme violence that is accessible to children. Psychological theories just may help back up those who are against violence in the media.

Movies such as Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the Thirteenth have all had a magnificent way of glamorizing violence. Although these movies are based on fictional characters in fictional settings, there are some people who begin to tie these fiction-based visuals into a real life scenario. In 1996, a 14-year-old boy named Barry Loukaitis walked into his school wearing a wild western style gunslinger and a duster to hide his hunting rifle and two handguns and then opened fire on his Algebra teacher, killing her instantly with the eraser still in her hand. He then began opening fire on classmates and ended up murdering two. He held hostages for a while and released some of the wounded, until a teacher named Jon Lane came and tackled the teen to the ground and held him there until the police showed up. Loukaitis is now serving two mandatory life sentences without parole plus 205 years a Clallam Bay Corrections Center in Washington State.

Many people will look at this case and wonder why in the world would a young man who has his life ahead of him do such a thing? According to the article, "The Unthinkable- Kids Who Kill and What Motivates Them," Loukaitis loved the film Natural Born Killers, and said that he identified with the kid named "Jeremy" in Pearl Jam's rock video. He was also said to have read a book called Rage written by Steven King and he even quoted directly form the book after shooting his teacher, "This sure beats algebra, doesn't it?" Could these violent media items have possibly caused Barry to brutally murder these people? Could he really have been inspired to do such a horrible thing by just reading a book?

It is quite amazing to assume that these were the only factors in Barry's murderous rampage. However, there are other possible factors behind his heinous crime. Barry lived with both of his parents in Washington where the family owned a sandwich and ice cream shop. A few years before the shooting Barry's father began having an affair and his mother became suicidal. She would speak of suicide frequently and she also implied that Barry would too have to kill himself. In January of 1996, the same year of the shooting, his mother informed him that the date of their double suicide would be Valentine's Day. Barry was bullied and also suffered from clinical depression. One of the students who bullied Barry was also one of his murder victims.

According to Delinquency in Society, the Behavior Theory may help to explain why Barry decided to open fire that day. Albert Bandura thinks that children learn how to behave by imitating others. If a parent is constantly smoking cigarettes, there is a chance that the child will too become a smoker one day. If a child is constantly witnessing domestic violence in the home, there is a good chance that the child will grow up to be an abuser or be a victim of domestic violence. Not only does the people who the child is around make a huge impact on the child's behavior, but also the media. Movies, music, video games, and other forms can have an influence on how a child behaves or develops.

I think that it is safe to wonder if Barry's mother and father's relationship influenced his behavior that day. He might have picked up the distressing depression signals of his mother and began to implement them into his own life. His mother's suicidal rants could have also caused him to lose respect for life and its importance.

We may never know what was in the back of Barry's mind that day, however, these psychological theories may help us to take a small peek into his thoughts and motives for committing the crimes that he did.