Marine's Mom Doesn't Know What Led to Rampage The mother of a Marine killed after a shooting spree that left one dead in Texas said Tuesday that she doesn't know what prompted the attacks, including the stabbing of his wife in North Carolina. Lance Cpl. Esteban J. Smith, a 23-year-old Marine, died Sunday in a gunfight with Texas authorities after a shooting rampage that left one person dead and several hospitalized. Authorities believe Smith fatally stabbed his wife, Rubi Estefania Smith of Bakersfield, Calif., in a Jacksonville, N.C., motel room near Camp Lejeune before the shooting rampage. Esteban Smith's mother, Rosalva Jimenez, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday that she last spoke to her son on Thursday. She said her daughter-in-law had recently traveled from their California hometown to North Carolina to surprise him. She said her last phone conversation with her son was brief because he was at work and that she knew of nothing that would have led to the crimes. "He was OK, but he went crazy all of a sudden," she said, speaking in Spanish. She said her son had just married his wife in December and that he was preparing to leave the armed forces. "He wanted to come back, go to college, become a mechanical engineer," she said. Smith was a veteran of two combat tours in Afghanistan, but Jimenez said she never asked him about what happened there. "I didn't want to hear," she said, adding that she hadn't wanted her son to go to war. She also said she didn't know of any problems between her son and his wife. "Maybe they argued and he went crazy," she said. Authorities have said the Texas victims were likely randomly targeted but have not said why Smith made the 1,500-mile trip to the town of Eden or where he may have been going. "I imagine he was in Texas because maybe he was driving home" to Bakersfield, his mother said. That's the road he would take. Jimenez said she's sad for the people affected but that her son wasn't a monster. He was a very bright, quiet, calm man. He was the type of person that would not even like when you would raise your voice," she said. A West Texas sheriff wounded by the gunman told The Associated Press the shootings appeared to be indiscriminate. "This guy was intent on killing anybody and everybody," said Concho County Sheriff Richard Doane, who was shot near his left ear. None of it makes sense. Doane said he is uncertain whether Smith killed himself or was killed by law enforcement. Smith, who was also from Bakersfield, was stationed with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. Base spokesman Master Sgt. Jonathan Cress said investigators have determined the firearms used in the shootings were not issued by the military. An assault rifle, handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were recovered from Smith's vehicle. Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Maureen Krebs said Smith enlisted in November 2008. He returned from his second tour as an infantry rifleman in Afghanistan in November 2012. He was awarded several decorations, including a Combat Action Ribbon and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Krebs said. Sunday, when the gunman shot a passenger in a car carrying three people in their 20s in the Eden area of Concho County, about 210 miles southwest of Dallas, Doane said Doane said Smith pulled up behind the trio's car and started firing. "They thought he was throwing rocks at them and he was actually shooting at them," Doane said.