Chapter Two
Three Mass Murder Examples
Example One:
In San Bernardino, California on December 2nd, 2015 at approximately 11am the mass shooting and attempted bombing occurred at the Inland Regional Center in a large rented banquet hall. An estimated group of seventy-five employees of the San Bernardino County Department of Health were engaged in their annual holiday employee party.
The first shooter was Syed Rizwan Farook, a Health Department employee and was an American born citizen. The second shooter was his wife Tashfeen Malik who was Pakistani born and became a permanent resident of the U.S.A. Both were living in the city of Redlands, California. Together they shot and killed fourteen individuals and seriously wounded another twenty-two individuals. The total death count including the two shooters came to sixteen dead.
They were armed with 9mm semi-automatic pistols and AR-15 type semi-automatic rifles. Several Pipe bombs were also found at the shooting location but had not been detonated by either of the married couple.
Because of their online/internet activity they were later, after a full Federal Bureau of Investigation were labeled to be ‘homegrown violent extremists’ who were radicalized over a several year timeframe which led the two murderers to personally commit to actions of martyrdom through jihadism. No connection to any in-country or overseas cell or terrorist network could be found or proven by the FBI.
Within four hours of the mass shooting the police caught up with the two perpetrators and both were killed during the ensuing gun battle.
This Mass Murder is listed as a ‘workplace shooting’ by law enforcement.
Example Two:
Charleston, South Carolina Shooting on June 17th, 2015 took place just a few minutes after 9pm at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The mass murder occurred during an evening prayer and bible study service. Nine people were gunned down and one other was wounded.
The lone shooter was Dylann Storm Roof who had attended the bible study, a twenty-one year old who believed in White Supremacy ideology and later confessed he was hoping to start a race war with his attack on the predominantly black church goers.
Dylann Roof was taken into custody by police in Shelby, North Carolina the following day. A .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol known as a 'Glock-41' was found to be the weapon used in the mass shooting.
After the authorities determined the crime was race related Dylann roof was charged by the State of South Carolina with nine counts of federal hate crime charges.
Dylann Roof had operated a website which not only spoke of his negative feelings toward Blacks, but also his negative feelings concerning Hispanics, Asians, and Jews.
Example Three:
Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre on December 14th, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut around 9:35am Adam Peter Lanza, age twenty, shot and killed six adults and twenty children. It was later discovered he had killed his mother before going to the school which brings the total death count, including the shooter who committed suicide at the scene, to twenty-eight.
This shooting incident was originally classified as a Mass Murder, but later seen as a 'Spree Shooting' due to the earlier murder of Adam Lanzas' mother, Nancy, before the second incidents of murder took place at the school.
Adam Lanza used a semi-automatic rifle called a 'Bushmaster XM15-E2S' and a Glock-20SF semi-automatic pistol during his attack. Another semi-automatic, a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol was found at the scene but not used during the fateful event.
These are just three examples of Mass Shootings which have occurred within the United States of America.