Jacksonville shooter had history of mental illness

BALTIMORE — The suspect in a deadly shooting at a Florida video game tournament had previously been hospitalized for mental illness, according to court records in his home state of Maryland reviewed by The Associated Press.

Divorce filings from the parents of 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore say that as an adolescent he was twice hospitalized in psychiatric facilities and was prescribed antipsychotic and antidepressant medications.

The records show Katz’s parents disagreed on how to care for their troubled son, with his father claiming his estranged wife was exaggerating symptoms of mental illness as part of their long and bitter custody battle. The couple divorced in 2007.

Katz opened fire Sunday at a gaming bar inside a collection of restaurants and shops in Jacksonville. He killed two people and wounded 10 others before fatally shooting himself during the “Madden NFL 19” tournament, authorities said.

Investigators on Monday were still trying to determine whether Katz had planned the attack or if it was a crime of passion sparked by his losses at the regional tournament.

Katz apparently ignored other patrons to specifically target gamers, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said.

Both players who beat Katz in the tournament were still alive, leading one of them to conclude that they were not targets.

“He seemed to target popular names in the ‘Madden’ community,” Dennis “Evil Ken” Alston, 27, of East Orange, N.J., said in a Twitter message Monday.

The suspect’s father, Richard Katz of Baltimore, and his mother, Elizabeth Katz of Columbia, Md., could not be reached for comment Sunday or Monday.

The Howard County, Md., divorce filings say that David Katz played video games obsessively as a young adolescent, often refusing to go to school or to bathe.

In recent weeks, Katz purchased the two handguns he carried from a gun store in Baltimore, the sheriff said.

The sheriff did not say whether Katz disclosed his past hospitalizations on the form for the required federal background check.