Did Stress Cause Seal Beach Salon Killer to Snap?
![dekraai mug shot by Seal Beach Police Dept.](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/221600/dekraai-mug-shot-seal-beach-police-dept.jpg?w=300&f=efe77becc578f61876a3d8e89a7f7323)
Divorce court documents from 2008 show the alleged gunman Scott Evans Dekraai - who is accused of the the Seal Beach, California Salon Shooting - suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Dekraai’s doctor, Ronald T. Silverstein of Long Beach, presented the PTSD diagnosis in court documents dated September 2008, during the divorce custody proceedings of Dekraii and Michelle Fournier - the alleged target of the shooting, according to the L.A. Times.
The documents also stated that repeated phone calls from Dekraai's ex-wife Fournier were "extremely stressful" and "not healthy" for Dekraai.
Previously Dekraai had been working on tugboats and sportfishing vessels until a tug boat accident in 2007 that killed a deckhand. Dekraai witnessed the accident and nearly lost his legs, leaving him permanently disabled.
"Up until the accident he was heavy into fishing and water sports like surfing and boogie boarding,” according to Don Ashley, owner of Pierpoint landing charter operation in Long beach and former boss of Dekraai.
"The last four or five years, he was pretty miserable," Ashley said. And the companies he had worked for struggled to find him work.
When he and his wife divorced, they fought over custody of their 8-year-old son, with whom Dekraai had a deep attachment, said Ashley.
When Ashley heard the news Wednesday that Dekraai was suspected of shooting eight people, he said hewas surprised and shaken.