Duncan wrote in letter: ‘I have once again become a medium of violence in the world’

The gun that Joseph Duncan used to shoot 9-year-old Dylan Groene to death was admitted into evidence in court this morning - with blood found on the gun and on duct tape removed from the gun both testing positive for Dylan’s blood - as were numerous other items retrieved from the red Jeep that Duncan was driving when he was arrested. Among them was a letter, found folded up in a pocket of a coat, that Duncan wrote to his mother. “I have once again become a medium of violence in the world, and once again wish I wasn’t alive,” he wrote, describing a “huge reservoir of hatred – evil – that drives me to hurt people, even those I love.” The two-page letter, which Duncan acknowledged was in his handwriting, said in part, “I am driven by my hatred for our society – the system – but at the same time tortured by my own compassion. … God has shown me the face of evil … evil is real only because we make it real. … Evil can live in a person and in a society as well. … I have been inflicted by an evil ‘demon’ that is nurtured by our so-called criminal justice system… I am still fighting my demons and asking God to guide me as he can.”