Beyond Wonderland shooting suspect blames act on bad mushroom trip

The suspect in the shooting at Beyond Wonderland festival has blamed his actions on a bad mushroom trip.

Last weekend (June 17), a shooting took place at a campground near to the Washington EDM festival, which resulted in two deaths.

It was then revealed that suspect James M. Kelly is an active member of the US Army based at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Washington state.

Kelly is being held on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, and one count of first-degree assault domestic violence.

According to local outlet KHQ, Kelly told police that he arrived at the festival on Friday (June 16) and set up camp with his girlfriend, and took mushrooms before going to the festival on the Saturday.

Kelly added that he began to have hallucinations of an apocalypse and proceeded to retrieve his gun from his vehicle and load it and begin shooting. Court documents add that after his girlfriend phoned 911, Kelly fired one shot into her foot and another into her leg, the second of which will cause permanent damage and was considered life-threatening.

The festival was being held at the Gorge when police were alerted to an “active shooter” in the nearby campground on Saturday, where many festival attendees were due to stay while artists were performing at the festival.

A police conference later in the evening reported that officers had “pursued (and) closed-in on the suspect” but they continued to “fire randomly into the crowd” before being apprehended (via Variety).

After the festival, Insomniac Events founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella issued a statement following the tragic events.

“On behalf of the entire Insomniac family, we extend our heartfelt thoughts and condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of the victims. The loss of two lives, as well as the injuries sustained by others, is an incredibly heartbreaking tragedy,” Rotella started his statement.

“Given the various accounts circulating, I would like to provide an update based on the information currently available,” he wrote.

The post Beyond Wonderland shooting suspect blames act on bad mushroom trip appeared first on NME.