ARIZONA - Extremest J.T. Ready Goes On Shooting Rampage

"Friends: Shooting suspect was cruel, controlling" by Laurie Merrill (The Arizona Republic), USA Today 5/4/2012

GILBERT, Ariz. – To most outsiders, nothing seemed amiss between Lisa Mederos and Jason Todd Ready.

But behind closed doors, friends say, Ready was cruel and controlling, once pouring a bottle of water over Mederos' head because it was the wrong brand and another time ordering her daughters to find new homes.

For several years, J.T. Ready conducted armed, civilian patrols along the U.S. border, urging the use of violence to prevent smuggling and illegal immigration.

On Wednesday, the former Marine, who was running for Pinal County sheriff, went on a shooting rampage in a sedate Gilbert neighborhood, killing four people, including Mederos, before he took his own life, authorities believe.

Despite outside appearances, Mederos, 47, was a domestic-violence victim, Gilbert police said. She had called police twice about domestic violence, the first time in February, when she reportedly complained that Ready had choked her six months earlier, police said. The report went nowhere.

The second time was her last: She called police in the moments before she and three other members of her household were slain Wednesday before Ready, the suspected shooter, killed himself, police said.

Neighbors and friends described Mederos as a stay-at-home grandmother who adored walking and decorating her home, where she had lived in for about 20 years. Ready was a gun-toting member of the far right National Socialist Movement who wore fatigues around the house, amassed a grenade stockpile and led armed vigilante patrols to the border.

Their public demeanor was unremarkable, neighbors said. Ready had moved into Mederos' home about six months ago, which was about six months after the couple met. Neighbors reported the two smiled at them as they would pull into their driveway. They exchanged pleasantries as they walked her dog and often shopped together, especially for antiques, neighbors said.

But others had noticed troubling signs before gun shots pierced the quiet of the neighborhood around 1 p.m. Wednesday and shattered the assumptions of acquaintances. The dead included three generations of the Mederos family: Lisa, her daughter Amber, 23, and her 16-month-old granddaughter Lilly. Amber's fiancee, Jim Hiott, 24, was also slain.

Gilbert police said that Ready, 39, who had a history of soured relationships, went on a rampage, shooting everyone in sight, then himself. Moments before the shooting, Mederos had called 911 to report a domestic violence incident, police said.

"Our investigation is directing us to murder-suicide," Gilbert police Sgt. Bill Balafas said Thursday. "There is no indication of outside players at all."

Mederos may not have known Ready's troubled past with women, which included a Scottsdale woman who filed an order of protection against him in 2009, and another woman in Ready's apartment complex who in 2003 accused him of stalking, spying, frequently calling and trying to kiss her.

Amber, her daughter, Lilly, and and her sister, Brittany ,were living with Lisa when Ready moved in. Ready had been fired from his Auto Zone job and lost his apartment, friends and neighbors said. Lisa supported him.

It didn't take long for the girls to become disenchanted, said Morton and Castle.

"They hated him," Castle said. "They were always nervous around him."

Ready, an admitted white supremacist, often behaved in a racist manner toward Lilly, who was half-Latino, calling her "50 percent ugly," Morton said.

Ready also was short-tempered, cocky, cruel and controlling, Castle and Morton said.

Once, when Lisa bought him the wrong kind of bottled water, he poured it on her head, said Richard Rory, a friend of Morton's and Amber's. He timed the girls' showers, ordering them to hurry up, Morton said.

"He's living there for free. He's telling her children how long they can shower," Morton said. "He does nothing for her."

He then delivered a crushing blow, splitting the family apart as domestic violence offenders are known to do. Her told Amber and Brittany they had to move out, and both girls left, Castle and other friends said.

"He was such a horrible person," said Castle. "He was a scary person. He was short-tempered.