Mother Of Dead Gunman Links His Troubles To Rumors

Dean Mellberg's problems in the Air Force started last year when a roommate spread rumors that he was gay, his mother said today.

Lois Mellberg of Lansing, Mich., said she was shocked that her son sprayed bullets through an Air Force hospital, killing four before being killed himself. His mother was especially dismayed she learned of his death from CNN, not military authorities.

"My son has never been aggressive. To my knowledge he has never even fought with anyone," she said. "People he knows in Spokane told us he just purchased the weapon that day.

"The Dean Mellberg I know is a very loving, caring individual, top in his class" for military electrical technicians, his mother said.

"When he was in high school, he excelled in computers and different languages. He was average to above average as a student," she said.

Mellberg graduated in 1992 from Lansing's Waverly High School. A high-school yearbook indicates he was active in the chess club and a choir class.

Mrs. Mellberg said a feud with an Air Force roommate at Fairchild led to rumors and innuendos being circulated about her son among other airmen. "They put out rumors he was gay . . . They stole chairs from inside his room . . . They flattened the tires on his bike."

Mrs. Mellberg said she believes her son received "an honorable, administrative discharge" last month, contrary to media reports that the discharge was for psychological reasons.

Mrs. Mellberg said she didn't even realize her son was back in Spokane. She said she spoke to him several weeks ago and he was going to Alaska.

"He told me he wanted to go and see the country and he wanted to look for work," she said.