Fla. School Board Shooting (VIDEO): Clay Duke was "Gentle Giant," Says Wife

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (CBS/AP) Clay Duke's wife said Wednesday that the man who opened fire at a school board meeting in Florida was an excellent marksman and probably missed the five board members - sitting steps away - on purpose.

PICTURES: Fla. School Board Shooting

"He didn't want anyone to get hurt but himself," Rebecca Duke said in a rambling press conference to talk about the man she called a "gentle giant."

"The economy and the world just got the better of him," she said.

The burly 56-year-old held a Florida school board at gunpoint Tuesday, saying he was prepared to die. He fired at board members, missing them by inches, then killed himself after exchanging gunfire with a security guard.

Duke was a troubled, broke ex-con with bipolar disorder, an interest in anarchy, a wife whose unemployment benefits had run out and frustrations that reached their boiling point on a day circled on his calendar at home.

In the moments prior to the shooting, Duke spray painted a circle and a large, red V inside of it on the meeting room wall and muttered about rising taxes and how his wife was fired from the school district. The school superintendent begged Duke not to shoot, but he did.

No one but Duke was injured; a school security guard fired several shots and hit Duke three times in the back. In the end, Duke took his own life by shooting himself in the head.

Police said the attack wasn't some spur of the moment idea. At his mobile home in the woods, they found Dec. 14 circled on a calendar. And police said he had at least 25 more rounds of ammunition in his pocket.

The entire shooting was captured by local television stations, and the video was posted on the Internet and broadcast on TV throughout the day.

About a week ago, Clay Duke joined Facebook. Over the past several days, he added photo stills from the movie and graphic novel "V for Vendetta," an account of a masked man who fights against a totalitarian government. The movie's predominant symbol - a red "V'' inside of a circle - was posted several times on Duke's page.

He also quoted the final passage from Percy Shelley's "Masque of Anarchy": "Rise like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number/Shake your chains to earth, like dew/Which in sleep had fall'n on you/Ye are many-they are few."

Duke had no Facebook friends - although by Wednesday afternoon, thousands of people responded to his earlier postings, many of them critical of Tuesday's shooting. Others were more sympathetic, saying that Duke was driven to madness because of the difficult economy.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE SCHOOL BOARD SHOOTING ON CRIMESIDER