Few described him as frightening
More from the Times on Darren Osborne.
He had family problems and was known by locals as belligerent and aggressive, with a drinking problem. He had Muslim neighbors, who described his behavior as fairly unremarkable, and his children had Muslim friends.
No one on the cul-de-sac in Cardiff, Wales, where Darren Osborne, 47, lived could readily explain what he is believed to have done: rented a van, driven it 150 miles to London and plowed into a crowd of Muslims as they finished prayers at the Finsbury Park Mosque early Monday.
Numerous residents here said that Mr. Osborne was often agitated, even disturbed, but few described him as frightening and none said he had expressed political sentiments, much less anti-Muslim or far-right ones — until last weekend, when he was kicked out of a local pub, the Hollybush, after a drunken tirade.
“My son was at the pub on Saturday night and said he got kicked out because he was scribbling all over the tables and shouting racist comments about Pakistanis and Muslims,” a resident, Ross Johnson, said Tuesday outside the pub.
So the next day he headed for Finsbury Park.
Several residents in and around Glyn Rhosyn, the street where Mr. Osborne lived in a semidetached two-story house, said he at times seemed disturbed and volatile.
Chris Peter, a car mechanic, said that he used to work with Mr. Osborne but that he had found Mr. Osborne to be “unreliable” and “erratic.”
“You just didn’t know what you’re going to get with Darren,” Mr. Peter said. “One minute he’s fine, the next he’s drunk, cursing and vile. He was a nut job.”
It’s odd that few people said he was frightening then. I find that kind of thing very frightening, because it seems to be on the edge of violence.
Mr. Peter added: “I stopped working with him because he had anger problems. One day, he came in stinking of booze and sweat and started shouting his mouth off, throwing tools. I haven’t seen him in a while, but my mate said he’s been sleeping out in the woods in a tent because his lady kicked him out the house.”
Jennifer Mears, who lived a few houses away from Mr. Osborne, said she considered him scary.
“My husband and I called him the ‘mad man,’ ” she said. “He would always zoom up and down the road in various cars that he would bring here. I think he bought and sold lots of cars, and it was annoying that he would park them all down the street.”
One resident described a time when Mr. Osborne had shouted at his family and thrown things around his garden.
“He threw a plastic swing, and it went over the fence and almost hit his neighbor,” said the resident, Laura Granger, who witnessed the episode. “When they complained about it, he swore at them and then went inside and started shouting at his children.”
She added: “We heard him scream at his wife, and he said, ‘Don’t make me get the cricket bat.’ ”
Frightening. Definitely frightening.
Did anyone ask his wife? I’ll bet she found him frightening – even if she never said so.
I had a neighbor who hooted and hollered a lot. Called the police on us a couple times (claimed our dog was barking incessantly. Couldn’t prove of disprove it, although his dogs sure did). He could sometimes be heard blocks away screaming at his wife. I still believe that’s what caused the stroke that put him on a scooter and ended his days of climbing our front steps to yell at us.
Yet we never believed he would snap and kill us. I can’t think of a logical reason why not, but we never believed it. One doesn’t, might be the answer.
People who do snap and commit or attempt multiple homicides will very often have this sort of history, but it’s still a small percentage of the people with this sort of history who do go on a killing spree. Additional scrutiny would be merited, but police have to have a bit more to go on to justify much work and intrusion. The warning signals are as salient as they are with the benefit of hindsight.
Wary and observant neighbors, relatives, and coworkers would be likelier to work in practice – and yay, won’t involve approaching a police state – but we’ve still got to accept there will be leakers though even that, especially since the unhinged sorts are likely to have less contact with relatives or neighbors, not socialize with coworkers, and if they have friends, they may be like-minded and no help.
“…few described him as frightening…”
Interesting phrasing. I think the article would have been better served by a slight rewording:
“…several described him as frightening…”
Domestic violence…check
Alcohol (probably alcoholism)…check
How did he decide to go all the way to London? Finsbury Park mosque has long association with the nastiest edge of Wahhabism, but did he actually research enough to choose it as his target?
John, I would guess that he was aware of Finsbury Park simply because of the Abu Hamza case, that he’d put Finsbury Park, London into a sat-nav because ‘obviously’ that’s the place for ‘bad’ muslims to be, then aimed the van at the first group of brown people he saw once he was in the area.