I can't imagine what it must have been like for him. Williams made it clear in his own words last summer that he would rather be back in Maryland, a familiar place where he felt comfortable. I hate it there. On the tape, aired this week on the television show Inside Edition , the boy expressed his wish to be with his friends back East. Williams' parents were divorced and he had little contact with his mother for much of his life.
Broken homes are a common factor among boys who have vented their rage in schoolyard shootings.
His parents divorced when Williams was 5, and he rarely saw his mother and never mentioned her to his friends, even as his father was waging a court battle with her over child support payments for Andy. The topic of his mother touched a nerve in him, his Maryland friends said. And neighbors of Williams' mother in North Augusta, S.C., said they didn't even know she had a younger son. Although his curiosity about the military does not appear to have been intense, Williams nevertheless displayed an interest in the topic, yet another factor common in boys whose anger boils over into school violence. Williams often wore camouflage military garb in his former Maryland neighborhood, though his friends said they attached no significance to his choice in clothing.