Anthony Powell, 28, killed 20-year-old Asia McGowan and himself in the Dearborn, Michigan campus of Henry Ford Community College on Friday, April 10. The murder received some attention from the news media as a tragic obsession gone wrong. Now, Youtube videos made by Anthony Powell are making their way around the internet. The videos show a portrait of a young man that is truly mentally disturbed and needed help, but no one saw the magnitude of what was about to happen.
Anthony Powell, Asia McGowan
Anthony Powell was known as Tony48219 on his YouTube account. Though reportedly shy in real life, while on the internet, he ranted vociferously about atheists, women, violence and suicide. He spoke about how atheists were mentally retarded and that women needed to be subservient to their men.
He also spoke about being depressed and wanting to kill himself with a shotgun.
His rants became so hateful that they generated a large negative response from Youtube users. Eventually, he became so offensive that his account was suspended last year.
After being suspended, he re-emerged a few months later, only to be banned again.
His victim Asia McGowan was just starting out her life, and dreamed of being a dancer or actress.
On Friday, Anthony Powell walked into the campus of Henry Ford Community College and shot her with a shotgun, and then took his own life. There is currently no evidence that McGowan was anything more than a passing acquaintance to Powell.
In one Youtube video, Powell reportedly said, “There’s no point to me living anymore. I’m really thinking of killing myself, and I’m pretty much gonna do it, and I’m so scared.”
Unfortunately, he decided to take someone else’s life too.
Anthony Powell video
April 15th, 2009 at 5:40 am
Wow, messed up. It’s truly tragic that an innocent person had to get mixed up in Powell’s psychosis. My sincere condolences to the McGowan family.
The contention that atheists are mentally retarded is proof of exactly how delusional this guy was. Call us unholy or whatever if you want, but we tend to embrace knowledge.
April 15th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Woah, hey Ignatius, why is my previous comment being moderated? I didn’t write anything even approaching obscenity.
Maybe it’s the phrase “mentally ret***ed”? Of course, that appeared in the article itself, so moderating it doesn’t seem too fair.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
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April 22nd, 2009 at 9:46 am
People who believe in god like to treat atheists as if we have no morals, yet they always seem to be the ones who do these kind of horrible things. Just because we don’t believe in your god doesn’t mean that we don’t know the difference between right and wrong.