DETROIT (WXYZ) — With every mass shooting, there are elements that are closely examined: why it happened and could it have been prevented.
In Buffalo, New York, that starts with the white 18-year-old alleged shooter who targeted Black customers inside a grocery store, based solely on race, hate and wanting the attack to be bigger and better.
“First, they study what other people have done. And either because they want to emulate them or because they want to out-compete them or somehow achieve something bigger,” said Pontus Leander, the director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University.
The evidence in the Buffalo case is the alleged shooter wrote about what’s called the “The Great Replacement” to target Black people.
The extremist theory can also be used to attack others including Jewish people.
“They're looking to express a certain set of motivations in a certain way,” Leander said. “Especially if they're in a state where they're looking to blame others or to offload problems onto other groups and justify engaging in certain actions such as violence against those groups.”
The Buffalo shooting and the ramifications of it are now the focus of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
What message could potential copycat threats send to the people of Detroit?
“And the idea is this is an area where it would be relatively easy for this person to—this is a terrible word to use—succeed in what they set out to do," Leander continues.
The warning signs for everyone can be seen in:
- Social media posts
- Texts to friends and others
- Searching for guns and weapons online
- Searching mass shooters online
- Family trouble
- Isolation
The Oxford High School accused shooter gave several warning signs including searching for ammunition on his phone in school the day before the shooting. And he drew a picture depicting a shooting the morning before it happened.
However, the process is evolving, even for the experts.
“Many psychiatric programs don't give practitioners a good basis for how to make these decisions, what to look for, how do you assess risk,” Sheiner said.
The evolving process points to doing more—not less—especially with teens and young adults.
Sheiner works with the FBI-led task force in Oakland County, which does threat evaluations.
Seventeen states have red flag laws, where police can take guns away from someone going through a crisis for a few days as they receive a mental health evaluation, and the case is reviewed by a judge.
It has been introduced in Michigan's Republican-led Legislature again this year. But again, it is stalled in committee.
“A judge can tell us if we can act, and we get more information before we can do anything permanent. How reasonable can you get?” Sheiner said.
This continues to be an evolving process for and from the next mass shooting.
