Salon Shooter Sat on Beach Before Massacre

'I know what I did,' he told arresting officer
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2011 5:07 PM CDT
Salon Shooter Scott DeKraai Sat on Beach and Pondered Killing Ex-Wife Before Shooting Spree: cops
Scott Dekraai, 42, of Huntington Beach.   (AP Photo/Orange County Register, Cindy Yamanaka)

Newly released police and court documents provide details on the salon shooting spree in Seal Beach, California, last month that left nine people dead and another seriously wounded. "I know what I did," suspect Scott DeKraai, 42, told the officer who pulled him over shortly after the massacre. He told police he had argued with his ex-wife on the phone that morning over custody of their 8-year-old son. After the call, he said he armed himself and drove to a local beach, where he sat on the sand and considered killing her, reports the Los Angeles Times.

He then drove to the beauty salon where ex-wife Michelle Fournier worked. (He told police he thought she was physically abusing their boy and had photos to prove it, notes the Orange County Register.) DeKraai said he shot Fournier first, then a co-worker of hers who had sided against him in the custody case, then the owner, who he said had come after him with scissors. He then killed the others in the salon as "collateral damage." He fatally shot the last victim upon leaving the store because he thought (incorrectly) the man was a police officer reaching for a gun inside his vehicle, police said. (More Scott Dekraai stories.)

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