Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A New Mexico teenager who police say killed two public library workers this week was afraid of returning to school, his pastor said.
The arrest of 16-year-old Nathaniel Jouett followed a shooting spree Monday inside the Clovis-Carter Public Library in the town of Clovis -- about 10 miles from the New Mexico-Texas border.
Police said employees Wanda Walters, 61, and Kristina Carter, 48, died. Four others, including a 10-year-old boy, were injured. Jouett escaped the library through a side door, and eventually surrendered to police.
District Attorney Andrea Reeb said she intends to file court documents Wednesday to try Jouett as an adult.
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Clovis Police Chief Douglas Ford said a motive for the shooting is unknown, and that he was unaware of any relationships between Jouett and the victims.
Pastor David Stevens of the Living Word Church of God in Clovis, though, said Jouett was recently baptized and had expressed suicidal thoughts. He also said the teen was recently suspended at his high school for fighting.
"He was worried about going back to school because there were two or three guys who were going to jump him," Stevens said. "He was walking down the hall when this guy hit him in the back of the head and then he hit back. [The suspension from school] was Friday and Monday, and, of course, Monday is when this all transpired."
Clovis, a city of about 37,000, held a vigil Tuesday evening at the Faith Christian Family Church, where Mayor David Lansford urged residents not to judge Jouett, who's lived in Clovis all his life.
"I heard some people say today that we failed this young man, we weren't listening. We weren't hearing his cry and we weren't paying attention and he slipped through," Lansford said.
