Mason James Lira, the man who ambushed and shot a Sheriff's deputy and killed a homeless man in Paso Robles, California, was shot dead following a massive manhunt on Thursday. On Wednesday, Mason James Lira (26) opened fire at the Paso Robles police station. When officers responded, he shot a San Luis Obispo County deputy in the side of his head. He is also accused of killing a 58-year-old homeless man.
The shooting prompted Paso Robles police to launch a manhunt along with San Luis Obispo Sheriff's deputies as well as law enforcement officers from neighboring cities, the California Highway Patrol and the FBI. Authorities locked down a 2-mile radius on the southern end of Paso Robles near the Salinas River.
As previously reported by International Business Times, Lira was shot and killed Thursday afternoon after he was discovered near the riverbed. Before he was killed, Lira opened fire at police officers, wounding three of them. The officers are expected to survive the shooting.
Bizarre Social Media Posts
In the wake of the shooting, Lira's social media accounts have drawn special attention over his odd writings and photographs of guns. However, one particular tweet from ten years ago has surfaced and may have been a "warning sign" of his deteriorating mental health. Lira's father has claimed he was suffering from several mental health illnesses and had stopped taking medication for them. In the chilling tweet, Lira says he wants to take a gun to school and kill everybody and "that WILL happen."
"I feel like taking a gun to school and killing all the gangbangers that f--k with me, one day im gonna snap, and that WILL happen," he tweeted in 2010.
Peter Manfredonia Scribbled Similar Warnings
As previously reported, Peter Manfredonia, the University of Connecticut senior who went on a murderous rampage that killed two people last month spurring a tri-state manhunt, scribbled similar warnings on the wall of his apartment a year before his killing spree.
"We saw what happened when Adam snapped," referring to Adam Lanza, who shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. "We saw what happens when Thanos snapped," he added underneath before writing, "Now they see what happens when I snap."
