Disturbing videos posted to Facebook by Michigan poker player Craig Michael Bergeron shortly before he allegedly shot an apparent stranger dead suggest the accused was suffering from a mental illness and was spiraling out of control.
Bergeron, 35, from Saline, Mich., was arrested on Christmas Eve and charged with first-degree murder, two counts of felony firearm, and felon in possession of a firearm in relation to the death of Tommy Ireland, 37, on Detroit’s east side December 23.
Bergeron, who first gained attention as an online player in the late 2000s under the screenname “hu4rollz,” fled the scene of the crime in a white SUV, according to police. He subsequently assaulted another victim nearby, police said.
Ireland’s family, who held a candlelit vigil for him on Thursday night, said they did not believe the killer was known to his victim and could not understand why anyone would want to kill him. They described Ireland as “a gentle giant” who “loved everyone.”
Paranoid Posts
In a video posted to Facebook just hours before the alleged murder, Bergeron is seen driving around Detroit by himself and appears paranoid about police as he turns the camera towards a squad car driving in the adjacent lane.
“Look! They escort me out of Warren,” he screams, referring to the Detroit suburb. “They escort me out of Warren!”
Bergeron posted several incoherent videos to Facebook on the day before the killing, including one in which he seems genuinely terrified.
They pulled a gun on me! They pulled a gun on me!” he says. “You gotta flash your lights. We gotta go to my house. Hey. Please. I’m sorry. Please.”
Past Glories
While Bergeron has been absent from the live poker scene for around five years, he has more than $1.3 million in gross tournament earnings, according to the Hendon Mob Database. In 2010, he finished fourth at the EPT Deauville for $312,853, and a year later he won a World Series of Poker Circuit ring.
Posters on the 2+2 forums who had known Bergeron from the poker scene reacted with shock at the news of his arrest and remembered him as a caring individual who once flew to Vancouver to try to help a friend in the grip of drug addiction.
“When he was young and had lots of money he was always so giving/caring towards friends and whoever he knew,” wrote one poster. “So to see him hit this spiral and have it end this way is really, really sad.”
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