10 American Killers Linked To Prescription Drugs

WARNING: consult a certified professional before taking, adjusting, or quitting any prescription medications.

By MacDreidel

Published 9 years ago

WARNING: consult a certified professional before taking, adjusting, or quitting any prescription medications. This post is not meant to infer that the drugs caused the murders, it is intended to spark an educated conversation.

1
Aaron Ybarra: Prozac and Risperdal. June 5, 2014: 26-year old Ybarra, opened fire with a shotgun at Seattle Pacific University, killing one student and wounding two others. Ybarra reported that he had been prescribed the antidepressant Prozac and antipsychotic Risperdal.

2
Elliot Rodger: Xanax. May 23, 2014: 22-year-old Rodger went on a rampage in Isla Vista, California, killing 7 people and injuring 13 more, before killing himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Elliot had been taking Xanax for a while, according to his parents. There were fears he might have been addicted to it, or taking more than was prescribed.

3
Jose Reyes: Fluoxetine (generic Prozac.) October 21, 2013: 12-year-old Reyes opened fire at Sparks Middle School, killing a teacher and wounding two classmates before committing suicide. The investigation revealed that he had been seeing a psychiatrist and had a generic version of Prozac (fluoxetine) in his system at the time of death.
4
Adam Lanza: Lexapro. December 14, 2012: 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Prior to driving to the school, Lanza shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the scene, Lanza shot himself in the head. Kathleen Koenig, a nurse specialist in psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, the last place Lanza was treated, had notes of Lanza’s behavior while on Lexipro. Nancy reported, “on the third morning he complained of dizziness. By that afternoon he was disoriented, his speech was disjointed, he couldn’t even figure out how to open his cereal box. He was sweating profusely…it was actually dripping off his hands. He said he couldn’t think…He was practically vegetative.” Adam stopped taking Lexapro and never took psychotropics again, which worried Koenig.

5
James Holmes: Clonazepam, Sertraline (generic Zoloft.) July 20, 2012: 25-year-old James Eagan Holmes set off several gas or smoke canisters and then opened fire while inside a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and wounding 70. During their execution of the search warrant on Holmes' apartment, police, “found prescription medication for sertraline, a generic version of Zoloft used to treat depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Clonazepam, usually prescribed to treat anxiety and panic attacks,” reports the L.A. Times.
6
Steven Kazmierczak: Prozac, Xanax, Ambien. February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Kazmierczak shot and killed 5 people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien.
7
Jeff Weise: Prozac. March 21, 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot and killed 5 students, 1 security guard, 1 teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself. Prozac was found in his system.

8
Eric Harris: Luvox. April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves in Columbine, Colorado. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox, while Klebold’s medical records remain sealed.
9
Kipland Kinkel: Prozac. May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending “anger control classes” and was under the care of a psychologist.
10
Barry Dale Loukaitis: Ritalin. February 2, 1996: 14-year-old Barry Dale Loukatis, shot and killed his algebra teacher and two students, and held his Frontier Middle School classmates hostage before a gym coach subdued Loukaitis. Loukaitis suffered from hyperactivity, and was taking Ritalin at the time of the shooting. He also suffered from clinical depression, a mental illness present in the last three generations of the Loukaitis family.