Mental illness stalks assailants in mass attacks
Study: 64% suffered from psychiatric symptoms
WASHINGTON – A striking number of suspects linked to violent attacks in schools and other public places last year had symptoms of mental illness, and nearly half were motivated by real or perceived personal grievances, a Secret Service report has found.
An examination of 28 attacks, which claimed nearly 150 lives and wounded hundreds of others – from Orlando to Las Vegas – also found that more than three-quarters of the assailants engaged in suspicious communications or conduct that raised concerns from others before the assaults, according to the report released Thursday.
The analysis, prepared by the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, had been underway months before the Feb. 14 massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school, but its findings are likely to further fuel concerns about the untreated mentally ill and their access to high-powered firearms.
In the Parkland case, social workers, mental health counselors, school administrators and law enforcement were all warned about Nikolas Cruz’s deteriorating mental state and risk of violence before he allegedly launched the attack that left 17 dead.
The new Secret Service review builds on a lengthy, prior examination issued by the agency in 2015, which found that more than half of suspects involved in 43 attacks targeting government facilities or federal officials between 2001 and 2013 suffered symptoms of mental illness, including paranoia, delusions and suicidal thoughts.
In the report, authorities found that 64 percent of suspects suffered from symptoms of mental illness. In 25 percent of the cases, attackers had been “hospitalized or prescribed psychiatric medications” before the assaults.
Among the most glaring of those cases involved Devin Kelley, whose November attack on a Texas church left 26 dead and 20 others wounded.
In the years leading up to the assault, Kelley battered his young stepson, menaced his former wife, was accused of sexual assault, had a history of stalking former girlfriends and in 2012 escaped from a mental health facility.
According to a police report related to Kelley’s escape, the gunman was hospitalized after he was charged by military authorities with fracturing the skull of his 1-year-old stepson.