The gunman who shot and killed two coworkers with an AK-47 in a New Jersey store Friday was a decorated Marine last stationed in California, a military spokesperson said.
Terence S. Tyler, 23, served as a rifleman in the U.S. Marines Corps. from 2008 to 2010, and most recently held the rank of lance corporal, the spokesman said.
He formerly lived in Brooklyn, but was stationed in 2010 in Twentynine Palms, Calif., the spokesman said. He had never served overseas, but received two medals -- a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and a National Defense Service Medal.
On a Facebook page belonging to a Terence Tyler with the same USMC service dates as the shooter was a note reading, "Be optimistic -- All the people you hate are going to eventually die." According to that Facebook page, he graduated in 2007 from George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, and his activities and interests were listed as "sports and hitting the gym."
Tyler killed an 18-year-old woman and 24-year-old man who were working the night shift with him inside the Old Bridge, N.J. grocery store, police said. He had worked at the store for around two weeks, Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry told the Asbury Park Press.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said Tyler got into an argument with co-workers at the store Friday morning, then went out to his car and returned a short time later carrying an AK47 and a handgun.
He may have had a history of depression or mental illness, a law enforcement source said.
