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Re: Former player charged with killing highschool football coach
Former player charged with killing Iowa coach
By NIGEL DUARA, Associated Press Writer
PARKERSBURG, Iowa (AP)—A 24-year-old former high school football player walked into the school’s weight room Wednesday morning and fatally shot his former coach, before sheriff’s deputies arrested him at a nearby home a short time later, authorities said.
Mark Becker shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas several times with a handgun after walking into the room at about 8 a.m., authorities said. Thomas was rushed to nearby Waterloo hospital, where he died.
Several students were in the room at the time of the shooting, but none were injured, said Kevin Winker, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. School was not in session Wednesday.
“The people that were present were not threatened in any way,” Winker said.
Becker is charged with first-degree murder and was being held in Butler County jail.
Winker said Becker was arrested without incident at a home in rural Parkersburg shortly after authorities received a 911 call about the shooting.
He said he couldn’t discuss what Becker’s motive for the slaying might have been, or what Becker might have been up to in the days leading up to the shooting.
“Motive is one of those things we’re looking into,” Winker said.
Winker said Becker used a handgun in the shooting. He did not elaborate.
He said investigators plan on interviewing students who were in the weight room and to look into Becker’s past.
“Mr. Becker’s entire past is being looked at,” Winker said.
The school is in Parkersburg, about 80 miles northeast of Des Moines.
Thomas compiled a career record of 292-84 in 37 seasons as a head coach, 34 of them at Aplington-Parkersburg, and was one of the most well-known high school football coaches in Iowa. He was honored as the NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2005, and four of his former players are in the NFL: Green Bay’s Aaron Kampman, Jacksonville’s Brad Meester, Detroit’s Jared DeVries and Denver’s Casey Wiegmann.
Re: Former player charged with killing highschool football coach
I'm going with he was still bitter over a comment made about him or coach being too critical. Was called "A pussy" in front of the team when he truly was cramped up, or got hurt a bit & coach called him "faggot". Stuff like that can eat away at people. Even years later they seek their vengeance as if it just happened.
RIP Coach
Re: Former player charged with killing highschool football coach
Or the coach was a dickhead.
Pretty much. A good book to read is 'Bleachers' by John Grisham. Really short (140 pages), about something similar to this. Not that a player shoots him, but just getting past a mean, yet succesful coach.
Re: Former player charged with killing highschool football coach
Probably pissed that he didn't make it to the big leagues so he took it out on the coach.
Or a gay love affair.
Take your pick.
You actually might not be too far off.
The high school I went to, one of the coaches assistants on the football team was having a gay love affair with one of the 16 year old players, and when the coach cut it off, the kid went after him with a gun. It never went beyond a young scorned lover holding their former lover at gun point, pissed, but still.
I just thought it was kind of ironic you mentioned that with this story. 
Re: Former player charged with killing highschool football coach
Apparently it was meth. The guy seemed deranged.
