A man whose wife was fired by a school board in Panama City, Florida, came to a school board meeting wielding a gun Tuesday, spray painted a circle with a “V” on the wall, and ordered the women out of the room as he pointed a gun at the men on the board.

Bay City Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt said, “”He had that look in his eyes. I’ve seen anger before, and he almost had like a grimace, a smile. He had planned to do this and we knew it wasn’t going to end well.”

Husfelt, in a tragic time, quickly put together the inconsistencies in perpetrator Clay Duke’s behavior.  He also knew to take Duke seriously and trust him when Duke said he was going to die that day.   He trusted what was likely gut responses because in these split seconds he didn’t have time to think things through.  In hindsight, I suspect he remembered the clues.

I have to wonder if that grimace was an expression of contempt.

Bill Husfelt talks about this incident and recalls it.  He displays a classic expression of sadness in his eyebrows that is painful to watch.  You can see by simply looking at Husfelt’s face he is very sad about what happened.

Duke left a message behind on his Facebook page. He wrote,  “Some people will say I was an evil monster…no…I was just born poor in a country where the wealthy manipulate.” 

What a tragedy.