Pantera fan guided by fatal obsession

Friends say the shooter's behavior became increasingly bizarre.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The man who shot former Pantera guitarist Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott lost friends as his behavior became bizarre, accusing the heavy metal band he obsessed over of trying to steal his identity, a one-time friend said.
"He was off his rocker," Jeramie Brey told The Columbus Dispatch in Friday's edition.
Nathan Gale once showed up at Brey's house with some songs he had written. Brey said the pages of lyrics were copied from Pantera. He told Brey that he planned to sue Pantera over the lyrics and for stealing his identity, Brey said.
On Wednesday night, the 25-year-old former Marine charged the stage at a show by Abbott's new band, Damageplan, and gunned down four people including Abbott before a policeman shot him to death.
Police spokeswoman Sherry Mercurio said on Friday that she did not know how many shots Gale fired but he had to reload his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.
Recent acquaintances of Gale said the man who wore thick glasses was quiet and socially awkward.
Police said they still didn't know Gale's motive. Some witnesses said Gale yelled accusations that the revered guitarist broke up Pantera, but police had not verified those reports.
"He used to be Pantera's No. 1 fan and has liked them for as long as I've known him," former friend Dave Johnson said.
'He just kind of snapped'
Brey and Johnson said Gale's behavior frightened them and they distanced themselves from him several years ago. By that time, Johnson said, Gale talked and laughed to himself and once appeared to be holding an imaginary dog.
Johnson said he met Gale, known as Nate, in the late 1990s through a mutual friend in their hometown of Marysville, about 25 miles northwest of Columbus. They held jam sessions and attended rock concerts together.
"After a while, something happened," he said. "He just kind of snapped. He went from being a cool guy to being a guy you didn't want to be around."
An imposing figure at 6-foot-3, Gale had made people uneasy at a Marysville tattoo parlor, staring and locking them into conversations about heavy metal music. When he played offensive line for the semi-pro Lima Thunder football team, he psyched himself up before games by piping Pantera into his headphones, coach Mark Green said.
Anthony Bundy, 20, who lives in apartment on the same block as Gale, said the man once turned down a party invitation.
"He seemed like a normal guy you would meet any other day," Bundy said. "He was a keep-to-yourself type of person. He was real quiet."
On Wednesday just hours before the shootings, Gale argued with a tattoo artist at the Bears Den Tattoo Studio, over some tattoo equipment he wanted the studio to order for him. Bo Toler said when Gale yelled at him and left angrily, it was the first time he saw Gale's temper flare.
Toler said he thought Gale came to the tattoo parlor because he wanted somebody to hang out with.
"I thought he had low-self esteem because of his thick glasses," Toler said.
Another worker said Gale had a black tattoo on his forearm in a "tribal" design.
Served in Marines
Gale had minor run-ins with police since 1997 but wasn't considered a troublemaker, according to Marysville police.
He served with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina until November 2003, when he was discharged after less than half of the typical four-year stint, Marine spokeswoman Gunnery Sgt. Kristine Scarber said. She declined to explain the discharge, citing privacy rules.
Gale's mother, Mary Clark, did not return phone messages seeking comment.
The shootings at the Alrosa Villa club came just after the opening notes by Damageplan, the band formed by Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, after they left Pantera. Gale dodged two band members, grabbed Darrell Abbott and shot him at least five times in the head, witnesses and police said.
In less than five minutes, Gale had also killed Erin Halk, 29, a club employee who loaded band equipment; fan Nathan Bray, 23; and band bodyguard Jeff Thompson, 40.
The band's drum technician, John Brooks, was released from Riverside Hospital on Friday, said Sgt. Mark Allen of hospital security. Tour manager Chris Paluska was in stable condition.