With a bald head, blackened eyes, creepy gaze, and smug grin, the infamous mug shot of the Tucson gunman Jared Loughner

is a disturbing portrait of someone who is just that: disturbing. In fact, behind the intense stare down by Loughner is someone “soulless who used to scare me” says Ashley Figueroa, a former girlfriend.

Jared Loughner, twenty-two years old, opened fire outside a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona, on Jan. 8, wounding thirteen including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the presumed main target, and killing six. Among the dead were U.S. District Court judge John Roll and nine year-old Christina-Taylor Green who was there to learn more about the government and further develop her political ambitions from Giffords. As for Giffords who was shot in the head, she recently underwent surgery following intensive care and is now being moved to a rehab center in Texas.

According to former teachers and girlfriends, Loughner had shown signs of trouble early on, described as “creepy” and culminating in a “dark personality.” As a teen, he was arrested for possession of marijuana. He was also charged with possession of alcohol as a minor after an altercation with his father. As a student in Pima Community College, he allegedly told a classmate to attach a bomb to a baby after she had read a poem regarding abortion. On another occasion, he turned hostile because he received a grade of B in his Pilates class. He was finally suspended when he recorded a YouTube video in which he called his college “unconstitutional.” Throughout his time in Pima, he was probed by campus police five times.

Using a 9mm Glock pistol that he had purchased back in November 2010 for the shooting, he was only successful in buying the ammunition at the second Wal-Mart he visited which reinforces the issue of gun control, how easily he was able to obtain the weapon, and whether or not this catastrophe could have, in fact, been avoided. Loughner, who had apparently examined famous assassins, solitary confinement, and lethal injection prior to the shooting, faces anywhere from twenty years to life for one count of attempted assassination of a Congress member, two counts of killing a U.S. employee, and two counts of intent to kill U.S. employees. Although he is pleading not guilty on all charges, he is expected back in court on March 9.

And if Jared Loughner wasn’t popular enough, his shooting spree may have ignited a fan base. Consistent with sources at Western Nevada College, forty year-old GED student Ismael Segura-Hernandez became very frantic after answering only 2 of 12 questions on an exam and threatened to shoot up his class “like the guy in Arizona.” Charged with making terrorist threats and disturbance of a school, his bond is set at $25,000. At least, the fan base publicly stops at one. Now, the hope is that it doesn’t take a shoot-em-up rampage for gun control and mental health to be taken seriously.