A Glimmer of Solace

It’s nearly impossible to predict who might turn into someone planning to execute people for a cause they feel necessary and noble. Even when authorities identify someone will bad intent, most parents believe, “My son or daughter would never do that.”

Later, schoolmates say the shooter was this or that, and they believe their classmate was capable of such a crime.

A man with schizoaffective disorder who heard a repeated mantra to target a specific ethnicity, turned out, was capable of doing harm to himself and others.

The day started uneventful—with a 21-year-old man, the son of a therapist and a nurse, who law enforcement had only interacted with once when as a boy who'd run away from home for only a short time—ended in tragedy.

Perhaps the most dangerous of all who plan a mass shooting are the ones who’ve never been in trouble with the law. They aren’t on anyone’s radar.

Had the local law enforcement known of this young man, it probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome. He drove ten hours from home to execute people from a specific ethnicity because he thought he was doing his part to help a cause. One witness said he went aisle by aisle in the big-box store looking for people to shoot.

He'd spent months planning the attack, wrote a detailed manifesto, and posted it on the internet moments before he began shooting.

By the time he fled, he’d killed 23 people and injured 22. A short time later, he surrendered and confessed. They charged him with hate crimes and firearms violations.

Even with the schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, the jury found him competent to stand trial. Three years after the shooting, because the prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table, he pleaded guilty to everything.

The court sentenced him to 90 consecutive life sentences. He agreed to pay millions to the victims. It’s doubtful they’ll see any money as he had few assets.

At the sentencing, the Interim Chief of Police said to the victim’s families,

“May this sentence offer a glimmer of solace and commence their journey towards healing.”

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, NPR - KQED, CBS News, AP

All data and information provided is for information and research purposes only and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. Appeals or overturned verdicts may have occurred in criminal cases since I researched them. All information is provided on an as-is basis.