Demetrius S. Ballinger talked about ammunition, and wanting to be called Lucifer, as he held hostages for four hours at the Woodbury Red Roof Inn recently.
His transcribed comments, including with hostage negotiators, provide a peek into a troubled mind just as its going off.
Ballinger, 25, is charged with 27 felonies, including attempted murder, in the Aug. 31 standoff that left one of his nine hostages dead of gunshot wounds from police. Ballinger fired at the hostage as he fled a motel room, and autopsy results are soon to reveal whether he shot Henderson, too.
Ballinger remained Thursday in the Washington County Jail, held in lieu of $1 million bail.
There easily could have been many more deaths, a prosecutor said, had it not been for the quick-thinking hostage negotiators who brought the ordeal to an end. He credited, as well, a brave young woman who dialed 911 before she threw her cell phone into a pile with others.
Still, before the ordeal was over, one man would be dead and four young women raped.
In the transcripts, Ballinger refers to a previous relationship that failed, with the mother of his child, and says repeatedly that he has no family. He talks about having nine hostages, who say they are 16, and says he wants to go out in a body bag.
"The police are out there but nobody's coming in," he is quoted as saying at one point.
