Near the scene, another neighbor, Rachel Reed, 25, recalled seeing Holmes a number of times on the stoop, with his backpack. A couple of months ago she ran into him at the Zephyr, where she had put a Lil Wayne rap song on the jukebox.

Holmes disapproved, she said, preferring rock 'n' roll music. He came over and "made some racially charged comments about rap," she said.

"He seemed like he was a normal dude," she said. "He was a little buzzed."

"He seemed like he was a normal dude,"

well now we know what drove him over the edge