'This is my hell. If I make it through this, I go to heaven': Agony of parents who turned their mentally-ill son into police to prevent Aurora-style massacre - after finding receipt for assault rifle in his pocket

Blaec Lammers followed a male clerk for more than two hours with a knife in his hand when he was 18



Hearing his name called over the PA system and seeing his father at the store made Lammers stand down



Lammers said he was inspired by recent reports of mass shootings

'Loner' arrested when his mother reported his strange behavior to police

Charged with assault and terrorist plot after confessing to deadly plan

Mother Tricia describes turning him over as her 'hell'



Whatever the outcome was going to be, they were sure to lose their son. So the Lammars decided to do what was for the greater good - they turned him over to police.



Last year, Tricia Lammers found a receipt for an $865 shotgun in her mentally-ill son's pocket. Blaec Lammars was able to buy the shotgun from the same Missouri Walmart where he was picked up by police a year earlier holding a butcher knife and a Halloween mask.



He later told his parents he had picked out an employee who he was going to follow into the back of the store and kill after watching Halloween, because the character Michael Myers 'got him to thinking'.

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Arrested: Blaec Lammers, 20, is accused of planning to launch shooting sprees in Bolivar, Missouri Parents: Whatever the outcome was going to be, the Lammars were sure to lose their son, so they decided to do what was for the greater good - they turned him over to police

His father Bill said: 'What he told us was he had picked out someone. He was going to watch them go into the back room, follow them back there, and hopefully the police would get him and shoot him first before he did anything.'



Yet Blaec was able to buy the assault rifle despite being in and out of mental hospitals throughout his life - one time for threatening to put a pipe bomb under his teacher's car.

On turning her own son in to the police, Tricia said: 'My first thought was, "What have I done? I just destroyed my son's life." And people would come up to me and say, "No, you saved our lives".



'This is my hell. This is my hell. If I make it through this, I go to heaven.'

When his parents checked him into mental institutions, he could only stay for four days at a time, which is the legal limit without a court order.



The Lammars told CBS they didn't realize how serious his condition was despite spending $50,000 on medical bills.



Troubled: Throughout his life Blaec Lammars was in and out of mental hospitals and was diagnosed with various different conditions including Asperger's and bipolar

Scared: Blaec's violent outbursts and manic behavior, forced the family to lock up their belongings. One time, he came up behind his sister, center, holding a knife

'Mentally ill': The 20-year-old is said to have suffered from depression and been off his medication

His doctors would give him new meds and a new diagnosis each time - everything from Asperger's to bipolar to schizophrenia.



Bill said: 'Maybe it's just teenage hormones. You try and figure out anything but a mental condition.'

By the time he bought the shotgun, he had been committed seven times, but this did not show up in his background check because he had never been committed involuntarily by the courts.



A day after discovering the receipt, Tricia contacted police, who arrested Blaec.



Investigators later determined he had recently purchased two assault rifles and 400 rounds of ammunition.

He allegedly admitted that he was planning to launch a murderous shooting spree in a movie theater during the opening weekend of the new Twilight film and had already bought a ticket to a screening of Breaking Dawn Part 2.

He admitted to police that he was inspired by a number of well-publicized mass shootings, such as James Holmes' attack on a theater showing The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, last year.



On turning her own son in to the police, Tricia said: 'My first thought was, "What have I done? I just destroyed my son's life." And people would come up to me and say, "No, you saved our lives"

They spent $50,000 on medical bills to figure out what was wrong with him. Father Bill said: 'Maybe it's just teenage hormones. You try and figure out anything but a mental condition'

Locked up: Lammars, now 21, is currently languishing in Polk County jail charged with making a terrorist threat, first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He faces life in prison

Lammers also said he planned to ‘just start shooting people at random’ at the Walmart store less than a mile away, so if he ran out of bullets, he could ‘just break the glass where the ammunition is being stored and get some more and keep shooting until police arrived,’ investigators wrote.

Her son, now 21, is currently languishing in Polk County jail charged with making a terrorist threat, first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He faces life in prison.



After he was arrested he spoke to authorities about the day he planned to murder a Walmart employee.



He said he watched the clerk for more than two hours and was planning to follow him into a storage room and kill him when he heard his name over the public address system and his father calling his name.

No charges were filed in that case. Instead, Lammers, who was 17 at the time, was committed for 96 hours for a mental health examination.



'Quiet': The suspect described himself as a 'loner' and admitted he had had 'homicidal thoughts'

Death: Lammers had bought a ticket to the new Twilight film where he planned to launch his massacre Inspiration: Lammers planned to imitate James Holmes, who killed 12 movie-goers in Aurora, Colorado

'Thankfully we had a responsible family member or we might have had a different outcome,' Bolivar police chief Steve Hamilton said. He said Lammers is under a doctor's care for mental illness, and court documents said he was 'off of his medication'.



Mr Hamilton said it appeared that Lammers obtained the firearms legally but that police were continuing to investigate 'to determine how in fact he was able to obtain a permit'.



