Aaron Alexis’ characteristics mirrored those of mass shooters

[dkf]

WASHINGTON — What are the factors that motivate a mass shooter?

Washington Navy Yard shooting suspect Aaron Alexis had several characteristics common among mass killers, experts say: aggression, difficulties on the job, paranoia and anger problems.

Alexis reportedly went on a rampage Monday, killing 12 people in a commando-style attack at the Navy Yard, where he was beginning work as a civilian contractor.

“He did have some of the common factors that we see in adult mass murderers,” said Kathy Seifert, a Maryland-based psychologist who’s studied mass shooters for more than 30 years.

“He had a history of aggression,” she said, noting police reports in Fort Worth, Texas, where Alexis reportedly shot through the ceiling of his apartment, nearly hitting his upstairs neighbor; in Seattle, where he shot out the tires of a construction worker’s car; and a disorderly conduct charge in DeKalb County, Ga. He wasn’t prosecuted in any of the incidents.

Seifert said common characteristics of the mass killers she’d studied included aggression, mental health issues, difficulties on the job, difficulty getting along with people, anger issues and emotional outbursts.

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[BlueToTheBone]

1. This is very interesting

If Alexis was, as Levin thinks, suffering from serious mental illness, that would be consistent with mass killers who try to kill as many people as possible.

“They are seeking revenge against all mankind,” Levin said. “In this case, everyone in the Navy.”

As for reports that Alexis was an avid player of violent video games, Welner and Levin said the games served to “desensitize” people to death.

“This is part of the training,” said Welner, who cites the killings of 77 people in Norway in 2011 by a video game-obsessed shooter. “It enables them to detach from the victims. It dehumanizes them in violence.”

Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who’s the president of Threat Assessment Group, which tries to predict and prevent events like the one at the Navy Yard, said the “innovator” of mass killings was Charles Whitman, who killed two family members in 1966 and then shot 14 people to death from the University of Texas Bell Tower.


I think that mental health clinics should be on every corner. This is a very stressful world and it is hard to be a human.