The final social media postings of the teenage gunman in a US school shooting offered a chilling forewarning of the carnage he was preparing to unleash.
The gunman, identified as Jaylen Fryberg, left a series of tortured posts on Twitter in the months leading up to his attack in Washington state on Friday, hinting that a failed romance may have been the catalyst for the shooting that left one dead and three critically wounded.
The rampage ended when he took his own life.
Social media posts painted a portrait of a teenager used to handling firearms, with one image on Instagram showing him brandishing a hunting rifle.
"Probably the best BirthDay present ever! I just love my parents!," he posted in a message accompanying the photo of him proudly holding the gun.
In his final post on Twitter on Thursday, Fryberg stated ominously: "It won't last...It'll never last...."
Less than 24 hours later the teenager was lying dead in Marysville-Pilchuck High School from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after opening fire in a crowded cafeteria.
Thursday's Twitter posting was the last in a flurry which began on Monday with the cryptic: "Alright. You f***ing got me ... that broke me."
A day later he added: "It breaks me...It actually does...I know it seems like I'm sweating it off...But I'm not..And I never will be able to." The post was followed by a series of anguished emoticons.
Later on he added: "I should have listened...You were right...The whole time you were right..." A final post on Tuesday added: "If I just laid down."
Two months earlier, on August 20, Fryberg's fury had flared again on Twitter.
"Your gonna piss me off...And then some shits gonna go down and I don't think you'll like it," he raged, following swiftly with "Your not gonna like what happens next."
Later the same day he added: "I hate that I can't live without you."
A month later, Fryberg appeared to be railing against a broken friendship. "Did you forget she was my girlfriend?" he wrote on September 18.
"Dude. She tells me everything. And now. I... hate you! Your no longer my brother.
Fryberg's elder brother Robert took to Twitter on Friday to tweet his grief.
"I don't wanna believe it," he wrote. "I'm gonna miss you little bro. Only god can judge you."
Hours earlier, Robert had aired his concerns after learning of the shooting - apparently oblivious that his younger sibling was at the centre of the bloodshed.
"I hope no one got shot though! Stay safe!" he wrote. Shortly afterwards he added: "They just sayer Fryberg? Wtf...I'm worried."
"I just heard some news and I pray to God that it is not true."
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