Fla. School Board Shooting (VIDEO): Who was Clay Duke?

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (CBS/AP) On Tuesday, Clay Duke, 56, spray-painted a "V" in a circle on the wall at a school board meeting in Florida, pulled out a gun, and opened fire, missing board members by inches.

PICTURES: Fla. School Board Shooting

Duke then killed himself after exchanging fire with a security guard.

Who was Clay Duke?

Born in Ocala, Fla., Duke graduated from high school in Tampa. Little is known about his early adult years - family members claimed he was in the Air Force for eight years, but that could not be confirmed.

In the mid-1990s, Duke had drifted to the Florida Panhandle - not the spring break-filled sugar sand beaches, but the remote and wooded inland.

The '90s were a blur of court hearings and personal conflicts.

He divorced a woman named Anita in 1995 and at some point, had a daughter. He was sued by a property management company in 1999. In 2000, he was convicted for waiting in the woods for his ex-wife with a rifle, wearing a mask and a bulletproof vest. She confronted him and then tried to leave in a vehicle, and Duke shot the tires. His second wife, Rebecca, said the incident was a misunderstanding and that he went to his ex-wife's house because the ex-wife "wouldn't leave them alone."

Duke's attorney on the case, Ben Bollinger, remembered Duke as especially paranoid about the new millennium.

"He was one of these Y2k people," he said, referring to a computer bug that some people thought was going to cause massive problems and economic chaos Jan. 1, 2000. "He was one of those believers that the world was going to turn for worst and he was stockpiling weapons, assault weapons."

Bollinger said Duke took a plea agreement: Five years in prison followed by 10 years probation. A judge relieved him of the probation obligations in January after Duke said he was unemployed and his wife might soon be. He said he was looking to move to a better place to find a job, according to court documents posted on the Smoking Gun website.

PICTURES: Fla. School Board Shooting

He also sought psychiatric help and took his medications as ordered and completed his probation, his lawyer said.

"He was competent but he was one of those people had a mood disorder where they could be depressed one day and all excited another day. I just remember the doctor saying he had a personality disorder," Bollinger recalled.

While in prison, Duke filed for bankruptcy.

He was released in January 2004. About a year later, he sued the Social Security Administration, which had denied his application for disability benefits and health insurance.

"He couldn't work. He just mentally couldn't make the connection for eight hours a day," said David Evans, the attorney who represented Duke.

Evans said Duke had been diagnosed by several doctors as bipolar, but didn't have enough money to buy the needed medication. "He was clearly in need of help," Evans said.

They filed at least five appeals to the denials.

"The judges adjudicating the claims didn't feel the claim was significant enough," Evans said. "All he was asking for was $500 or $600 a month and medical insurance."

Duke withdrew the suit in 2006.

He and Rebecca had married in 1999, just before his prison sentence. She said Wednesday that Duke faithfully took his medication for his bipolar disorder, but that he was under a lot of stress - she had been fired from the school district and her final unemployment check was due this week.

Tommye Lou Richardson, the executive director of human resources for the Bay District, said Rebecca Duke was hired in September 2009 as a primary school teacher for students with special needs. She was given a 97-day probationary period, and was terminated.

"She was not performing appropriately, we thought, the principal thought, and so she was let go," Richardson said.

She wasn't able to go into any further detail.

Richardson said Rebecca Duke had "indicated that she felt like there was a violation of her employment rights," though she never filed a lawsuit.

Rebecca Duke said in a press conference that her husband was a "gentle giant" who was pushed over the edge by the economy and frustrated over her losing her teaching job.

"He wanted to get me an answer," Rebecca Duke said.