‘The FBI made this happen’
Parents of OKC bomb suspect say feds pushed son into plot
The parents of attempted bombing suspect Jerry Drake Varnell accused the FBI on Tuesday of manipulating his mental illness to build a criminal case.
Varnell, 23, of Sayre, is accused of trying to detonate what he thought was a bomb in a truck behind the BancFirst building in downtown Oklahoma City on Saturday night. An undercover FBI agent had helped construct the bomb, which was inert.
Clifford and Melonie Varnell, Jerry Varnell’s parents, said they were “distraught”
about the situation and said federal investigators knew their son has the paranoid subtype of schizophrenia. They said they obtained a guardianship over Varnell because a court found him incompetent and he had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons “countless” times.
“What the public should be looking at is the fact that the FBI gave our son the means to make this happen,” the Varnells said in a written statement. “He has no job, no money, no vehicle, and no driver’s license, due to the fact that he is schizophrenic and we, his parents, do everything we can possible to keep him safe and functional.
“Underneath his condition he is a sweet-hearted person,” his parents said in their statement.
They also alleged the complaint exaggerates the truth, including portraying a shipping container they use as a storage shed and storm shelter as an underground bunker.
“What the public should be looking at is the fact that the FBI gave our son the means to make this happen.” Clifford and Melonie Varnell
People with paranoid schizophrenia experience hallucinations or delusions, often focused on nonexistent persecution. People with schizophrenia also can experience mood disturbances and other symptoms such as difficulty planning or they do not express emotion.
Court documents from a prior domestic violence case said Varnell was being treated for schizoaffective disorder, which combines thought symptoms such as those in schizophrenia with mood problems, such as depression or mania. Psychiatrists sometimes come to different conclusions about what disorder best characterizes a patient’s symptoms.
There isn’t enough evidence to tell whether people with mental illnesses are more vulnerable to radicalization than people without, said Patrick James, a researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. Studies have estimated that only about 4 to 8 percent of people who subscribe to an extremist ideology have a mental illness, but that a higher percentage of those who actually commit a violent act have a mental health problem. It isn’t clear whether mental health problems are the biggest factor pushing radicalized people toward violence, however, because people with mental illnesses are also more likely to have other risk factors such as a history of trauma, a substance use disorder or social isolation.
“So often, people that are dealing with mental illness also are dealing with these other factors,” he said.
Federal authorities declined to comment Tuesday, but the criminal complaint they filed alleged that Varnell was intent on attacking government targets. The 17-page complaint said an agent made contact with Varnell after a paid informant serving a prison sentence showed screen shots of texts where Varnell discussed “going after government officials.”
The criminal complaint alleged Varnell had researched bomb-making materials, took an active role in building the device and said he would accept some deaths in order to start a revolution.
“You got to break a couple of eggs to make an omelet,” Varnell allegedly told an undercover FBI agent. “That’s why people don’t do this (expletive) because, you know, you got to be able to overcome that little reality there.”
Varnell’s parents said they would have sought to have him committed to a psychiatric facility if investigators had told them about his alleged statements, but that they had never heard him express hostility toward the government. The parents also attacked the credibility of the informant.
“The FBI should have filed conspiracy on our son and had him committed to a mental institution. They should not have aided and abetted a paranoid schizophrenic to commit this act,” according to the statement. “There is no person in his life that has even heard anything about hatred for the government and we have all been shocked by the event.”
Unfortunately, the counterterrorism framework in the United States doesn’t offer many options to try to divert a person from a potentially violent path, James said. Some European and Middle Eastern countries have had success reintegrating radicalized people back into normal society with mental health treatment and other supports, but that isn’t available on a large scale in the U.S., he said.
The lack of alternatives leaves two problematic options, James said: aggressively building a criminal case or leaving families and local communities to try to divert a person.
Pursuing a criminal case using undercover agents risks pushing a radicalized person deeper into his ideology and breeds distrust in communities that feel targeted, James said. On the other hand, “lonewolf” attacks don’t necessarily require extensive planning, so assuming a radicalized person won’t pose a real threat could allow attacks to go on, he said.
“The FBI are just trying to do their job and prevent potential violence,” he said. “It ruins relationships of trust.”
Many experts believe that a framework to deradicalize people and reintegrate them into society needs to include mental health and social services, as well as support from people who have left extremist groups, James said. Sorting out the details of such a framework would be difficult, however, and require extensive political will, he said.
“Almost everyone agrees there should be something there,” he said.