Illogical action, very much so.  I suspect Mr Beaver has deeper-seated problems than what we know.  He admits having had depression, and perhaps someone should have thrown a net over him earlier.

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20, but I wonder if this could have been nipped in the bud if Mr Beaver's friends and colleagues had acted on the crescendo pattern of bizarre behavior, and got him some counseling.  That's hard to do with a colleague, and in this kind of situation everyone wants to pretend there's not a problem.  But I wonder if this whole sad story might have been avoided with a little humane preventive action.