It is sometimes of interest that an incident is so carefully reported to include the words, “terrorist attack,” but also just as carefully mentions no religion, foreign support, terrorist ties, etc. After Seung Hui Cho committed his attack at Virginia Tech, no mention was made of his recent conversion to Islam or how any of his behavior indicated that of a martyr. There are similarities in the reporting that occurred during and after the attack on December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, California.
On that day a married couple – Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik – attacked approximately 80 employees of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health at a Christmas party being held in a rented banquet hall. The attack was described by the FBI as a mass shooting and attempted bombing. Farook and Malik committed their attack at the Inland Regional Center before fleeing only to be caught by the police later.
Early on in the reporting of the event, almost purely in response to the perpetrators’ names, many reporters kept saying, “We don’t know if this is a terrorist attack or another mass shooting.” As if a mass shooting can’t also be a terrorist attack? Also early in the reporting, before the couple was caught approximately four hours later, it was reported that they were both of Pakistani decent, but there was no indication of foreign terrorist involvement or impact on their behavior.
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
