WaPo: Ex-Bush Aide Fatally Shoots Son, Himself

[Penndems]

Gunfire at McLean Home Followed Fight With Wife

By Tom Jackman and Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 15, 2006; Page B01

A former Bush administration official, after arguing violently with his wife Thursday night, shot and killed his 12-year-old son inside their McLean home, then turned a shotgun on himself and committed suicide, Fairfax County police said.

William H. Lash III, 45, was an assistant secretary of commerce from 2001 until last year, then returned to teach at George Mason University Law School in Arlington, where he had begun as a professor in 1994. His wife, Sharon K. Zackula, fled the house before the shootings, and police said yesterday they were not sure what ignited the murder-suicide in a first-floor bedroom.

Friends and neighbors described Lash as devoted to his only child, William H. Lash IV, who was autistic. Will Lash had just completed sixth grade at Haycock Elementary School in the Falls Church area, Fairfax school officials said. The father and son could often be seen side by side on the swing set in their back yard, one neighbor said, and the pair often attended Washington Nationals baseball games.

Police said they had not been summoned this year to the blue expanded Cape Cod-style home on Pathfinder Lane in the West McLean neighborhood. There was no record of any domestic complaints. Neighbors said the family kept a low profile.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071400502.html

[saltpoint]

1. This is horrible news. It's not horrible news about a former Bush aide.

It's horrible news about three human beings and everybody they knew -- neighbors, friends, teachers, doctors, and so on.

Very sad.

[Penndems]

7. You'd be surprised at how many troubled people walk the corridors

of power in this town. They put up a very convincing facade, but underneath all is not well.

It is truly very sad.

[saltpoint]

13. Hi, Penndems. I believe you. I believe your comment is right-on.

I just am sorry things happen as they do, when we're powerless to prevent them.

Party politics aside, and I'm not knocking the POST for its heading, these were only people.

[chill_wind]

26. These guys should be put in a maximum security "debriefing" facility

and detained there until their whole cultist proto-fascist network is gone. The whole world, including their own families would be a lot safer.

[Sannum]

2. God knows what is going on in these people's heads.

death and evil surrounds them.

[aquart]

17. Maybe fear for a child in a country with no provision for him.

Maybe he was overwhelmed in the belief that his son would not be able to survive without his parents, that his country has utterly abandoned him AND his parents and all his possible potential.

Maybe it had that much to do with Bush.

[bedazzled]

24. i can understand your point exactly

my son is high-functioning autistic, and i am scared for
his ability to take care of himself as an adult. there
is a limited understanding of his condition, and few
resources available to help him learn to adapt.

most folks worry about their kid's futures. for us it's
even scarier...

[jwirr]

29. He would not be the first one to think that way. We had a sister who

was diagnosed with a fatal illness and killed her disabled sister because she was afraid for her (the sister) future. Many of us parents understood her actions even though we did not condone them.

[buff2]

3. OMG............

That is horrible! What in the world is happening to people anymore? So many people are going crazy and killing their kids and each other......it's just sad......so very,very sad. :cry:

[JI7]

4. what's with these assholes to have to kill the kids

really, what is it about ? are they trying to spite their wife or girlfriend and leave them in misery ? it's just sick, disgusting. how could they do this to their own kids.

[AlCzervik]

6. i know, kill yourself, don't take everyone else down with you.

on edit, i don't mean you obviously!:+

[donsu]

25. men use it as a way to hurt the mother of the child

what hurt could be bigger?

[AlCzervik]

5. omg thats awful.

[saracat]

8. He dealt with the "reconstruction of Iraq" ?

Could that be why? Maybe he didn't like the world his son would live in? What did he fight with his wife about? Very weird.

[NoodleyAppendage]

9. Autism. Major stressor. Not uncommon to see family problems.

Sounds like a lethal mixture of prolonged stress, impaired and dependent child, and major depression. No a good mix for those owning guns.

J

[bedazzled]

23. thanks for such a compassionate response...

not excusing what this fellow did, but having an autistic kid is very difficult
sometimes.

he sounds like he was deluded in his politics, so it's hard to feel
sorry for him, but he was obviously mentally ill and went off the deep end.

there is very little understanding of autism, and not many resources for help in
dealing with it. i can still feel sorry for him, but worse for the little boy

[Oak2004]

30. I'm not sure that sympathy with murderers would be seen as compassionate

by autistic people.

In fact, I know it's not. Autistic people do not take such murders lightly. Now I expect to see my autistic friend at my door, as soon as she hears the news, wanting to talk, upset to the point of tears over yet another murder.

I also know that, statistically, parents who murder disabled children and get a light sentence (and therefore have the opportunity for recidivism) are in fact more likely to kill again -- negating the argument that it was the disabled child's fault. And I also know that the pattern of killing disabled children occurs whether or not extensive supports are in place for the family and child (negating the argument that the killing was caused by stress. In fact the only model consistent with the statistics is that of sociopathic personalities killing people who they find inconvenient, and whose lives society devalues.

Bearing a disabled kid does not make anyone a saint. Instead, it makes that segment of the population who see their children as extensions of their own egos into very very angry people. Such people are willing to do some very extreme things -- ranging from abandonment to early institutionalization to subjecting the kid to dangerous quackery to abuse to murder.

I prefer to save my compassion for those parents who love their children for who they are and want the best for them. There are plenty of such parents. None of them shower their children with hot lead and watch the life drain out of them. And, as a disabled person myself, I'm tired of watching crime of every sort perpetrated against disabled persons of every sort tolerated, excused, and underprosecuted.

[bedazzled]

31. i'm not saying that it's right

i'm saying that i can understand the desperation and how a person who is mentally ill might
react with such a horrific act. especially if help if not available.

i will admit i don't understand how a person with such an employment history wouldn't have the
means to get help for their kid if needed. that's the part of the story that confuses me, but i
admit that i don't know the entire story. i never will, and so choose to feel compassion for
both of them...i doubt if anyone would choose to be mentally ill.

as for being a saint, i think anyone who puts their heart into raising a kid is a saint.
a handicapped kid, even more so.

[brentspeak]

10. Terrible.

The other week, a father in California shot to death his three young children, then took his own life. This is often a horrible world.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Interesting interview with Gwen Ifill back during the 2000 Recount

Definitely very pro-Bush and anti-voters.



WILLIAM LASH: Well, Bush is actually lucky because he has the statute to fall back on. The statute speaks of a must. There is a mandatory requirement. Votes must be certified seven days after the election at 5:00 PM. That's what we're looking at. This question of letting mandatory recounts by hand keep continuing and continuing flies contrary in the face of the statute. The secretary has no discretion, and putting aside the question of partisanship, she's supported by Mr. Crawford who is a Democrat on the commission who says her hands are tied. The statute is an absolute. The discretion that she stated only refers to situations of emergencies -- again a Hurricane Hugo. The drafters of that statute knew you would have close elections, they knew there would be ambiguity; they knew there would be time for recounts. Those recounts can occur and they will occur but they must occur during the time period specified. You have seven days, that's it.

GWEN IFILL: Mr. Lash, what are the legal options, the legal recourse, which the Bush folks should be pursuing right now?

William LashWILLIAM LASH: Well, again, I think supporting the secretary's action is a leading effort that should be engaged in... and obviously the action at the federal court, they knew that was a risky strategy. But I think that was a defensive tactic. You know, people are claiming that …

GWEN IFILL: Excuse me. Should they appeal that decision?

WILLIAM LASH: It's funny. The court leftist wide open by making statements that again we don't want to interfere with an election but we recognize the importance of the arguments that are being made. And I think the door is wide open. Again I have not read the entire order. But the door is wide open. They just simply felt that an injunction was not appropriate at this time. They didn't say this was a bad argument. Again, like Ted Olson said, they realized it was a serious matter, a very grave matter.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/july-dec00/challenges_11-13.html

[WestHoustonDem]

12. Another person with knowledge of the Bush crime family

bites the dust

[bilgewaterbill]

15. Assistant Secretary of Commerce? Great googly moogly.

There isn't a conspiracy everywhere. What the hell could this guy have known?

[leesa]

21. He was probably being investigated in his role in the reconstruction of

Iraq. It is currently being investigated for the massive fraud that occurred.

http://www.rec-dev.com/conferences/conferences/past/irs/feb10_04/index.asp

[City Lights]

14. OMG, how horrible.

:cry:

So, so sad.

[mitchum]

16. Im sorry that he killed his son...he should have just turned the gun on...

himself. Something ALL repugs should do.

[truthisfreedom]

18. bushco.

nothing more needs be said.

Clinton's friends never did anything like this.

[Vinca]

19. Well, there was the one suicide - Vince Foster.

But he didn't take the family with him.

[tanyev]

20. And so many of them leave "to spend more time with their family".

RIP, little Will. Prayers for the wife.

[newspeak]

22. well, some of the power control freaks

do use the kids as punishment towards the mother. I've worked at a domestic violence shelter, and some use the kids to get back at the mother or the mother uses them to get back at the dad. It is an appalling tragedy!!!! Why should the children pay for their parents' insanity?

[KingFlorez]

27. It's horrible when people do

Why kill your child? If you want to kill yourself, fine, but don't kill anyone else.

[grannylib]

28. Oh how sad...what a horrible blow to his wife and family...how sad.

I don't know how people 'snap' to that degree that they feel such violence is their 'only option' or whatever...it just breaks my heart to hear such things.
As someone who had a child die unexpectedly, it is so hard to hear about a parent who takes the life of their child.

My prayers and sympathy to his family and those who loved him and his son. What a tragedy.

[Endangered Specie]

32. Republican Family Values eh?

[yellowcanine]

33. Is it me or does the * administration have an inordinate number of

seriously fucked up people working/that have worked for them?