OLD BRIDGE, N.J. — An ex-Marine who had suffered from depression and once tweeted about killing "everyone I see" opened fire in camouflage gear at a New Jersey supermarket, gunning down two co-workers before he killed himself, authorities said Friday.
Terence Tyler, 23, left his night clerk shift at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge Township around 3:30 a.m., drove off and returned 20 minutes later to the closed store with a handgun and an assault rifle similar to an AK-47, Middlesex County prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. About 12 to 14 workers were still there, inputting new prices into the computer.
Tyler fired more than 16 rounds from his rifle — shooting at an employee standing outside and firing as he entered the store, authorities said. He shot at five other workers in an aisle, killing Christina LoBrutto, 18, and Bryan Breen, 24, Kaplan said.
"I believe everybody in the store was a target," Kaplan said.
Tyler, who began working at the supermarket less than two weeks ago, drew his handgun and killed himself, the prosecutor said. The supermarket is about 40 miles south of Manhattan.
The motive was under investigation. But family members said Tyler had been discharged from the Marines two years ago after suffering from depression and had never gotten over his mother's death. The shooting happened around the five-year anniversary of her death, they said.
On a Twitter account in 2009, with a photograph identified by family members as Tyler, a post talks about hating Marine life. "I'm starting to see why plp go on killin sprees," he wrote in October 2009, using the handle (at)Tylerbkstyle. And these (obscenity) are reeeeeeally pushin my kill everyone I see button."
Tyler was discharged from the Marines in 2010 after just under two years in the service in Twentynine Palms, Calif., the Marines said.
His uncle, Christopher Dyson, said he left after suffering from depression.
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