CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) – The teenager suspected of killing two people and injuring four others in a public library had been searching for “inner peace” shortly before the shooting, the youth’s pastor said.
Nathaniel Jouett, 16, started attending Living Word Church of God three months ago and appeared to be turning his life around after having contemplated suicide several months earlier, Pastor David Stevens said.
Jouett is now awaiting charges for Monday’s deadly rampage. Authorities say their work has only begun as they talk to his family and friends and comb through social media posts looking for clues as to what may have prompted the violence.
Police on Tuesday confirmed that the young suspect who was seen being led in handcuffs from the Clovis-Carver Public Library after Monday’s shooting was Jouett, a student at Clovis High School.
“It’s just more than we can comprehend. I don’t know what happened,” Stevens said. “His mind had to snap. I don’t know any other way to explain it. He was a good kid. He had straightened his life out.”