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Mark Becker Claims H.S. Coach he killed was the Devil

Nolan Thomas Written by Nolan Thomas, Tuesday February 16 2010
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Mark Becker, 24, a former high school football player who walked into the weight room at Aplington-Parkersburg High School on the morning of June 24 and killed coach Ed Thomas, told Iowa police that he repeatedly shot his coach because he believed him to be a devil.

 

Coach Thomas was the 2005 NFL High School Coach of the Year and a leader in rebuilding Parkersburg after a huge tornado that killed six people and wiped out about one-third of the town in 2008.

 

Becker told police that Thomas turned students "into dead people," according to a tearful taped interview with him recorded just hours after the shooting.

 

The muddled recording of Becker's confession was played to a packed Butler County courtroom during the second day of his trial for first-degree murder. It has been testified that Becker said during the interview that he felt "no guilt or shame" about the slaying, but he had cried as he confessed to the killing and that his voice trembled at times during the recording.

 

Prosecutors have said that Becker calmly walked into the weight room at the High School, and saw the devil, "a horned beast," in the room with them, and then killed Thomas in front of a group of teenage students that were also in the room at the time.

"I put one in his head, then I put two more in his head, then I put one in the knee," Becker said in the recording. "I emptied the clip and left it empty."

 

Becker said that as he approached Thomas, his former coach turned and greeted him. "And I shot him," he said. "It's a great thing. It's so good."

 

Becker spoke in a monotone voice on the recording about why he wanted to kill coach Thomas.

 

"He's a devil, he's a devil tyrant, he's suppressing the kids out here," Becker said. "We can hardly breathe at night. He comes through and he turns us into fish and he turns us into animals and he turns us into dead people. He won't let us be our heavenly selves. He's been doing it forever."

 

Becker said that after the shooting he told the group of students that were present during the shooting that they were free. Six students who witnessed the shooting have already testified.

 

"I walked out and said, 'be free,'" Becker exclaimed. "You go in there and kick him if you want to, but you're free. I said, 'be free. It's done, it's done, it's over."

 

Becker has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys have said that they will try to show that he is a paranoid schizophrenic and that he had not taken his prescribed medication the night before the shooting.

 


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