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Week 9 Case Studies

Case 1: Colorado Movie Theater: James E. Holmes

On July 20, 2012, James Holmes, carrying several guns, dressed in body armor, and with his hair dyed orange, walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. He tossed tear gas grenades and then fired his weapons into the audience, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. Minutes later Holmes was arrested near his car in the theater parking lot. Arriving at his home, investigators found his apartment rigged with homemade explosives. Holmes claimed insanity, but in 2015 he was convicted and given 12 life sentences for the murders.

Case 2: Sandy Hook Elementary School: Adam Lanza

On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother in her home. He then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and forced his way inside where he shot and killed 6 adult staff members and 20 children. As authorities arrived on the scene, Lanza commited suicide. Investigators later learned that Lanza was a loner, prone to depression, and that he had access to guns. The massacre of young children shook the nation and resulted in increased advocacy for gun control.

Case 3: San Bernardino: Syed R. Farook & Tashfeen Malik

On December 02, 2015, Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, entered a Department of Public Health training event and holiday party in a rented banquet room in San Bernadino, California. Syed was one of the employees. Of the 80 people in attendance, Farook and Malik shot and killed 14 and seriously injured 22. The killers escaped but were located at an apartment complex 4 hours later where they engaged in a shootout with police. Both shooters died in the ensuing gun battle. The couple had been radicalized by Islamic terrorists. They had both visited Saudi Arabia and a large amount of money had appeared in Syed’s bank account shortly before the shootings. The couple had obtained a large stockpile of weapons, ammunition, and bomb-making equipment in preparation for the attack. The FBI referred to them as home-grown extremists and President Obama declared the attack to be one of terrorism.

Case 4: Ft. Hood: Nidal M. Hasan

On November 5, 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent and a U.S. Army psychiatrist, entered Fort Hood, the largest army base in the United States, near Killeen, Texas, and shot 43 military personnel at a medical clinic, killing 13 of them. Hasan was shot by a female civilian army police officer and remains paralyzed from his wounds. He is viewed by many, but not all, as an example of a person radicalized by Islamic jihadists to act as a lone wolf and carry out attacks on American soil. Since the 9/11 attack that killed approximately 3,000 people, the United States has significantly upgraded its domestic terrorism resources in order to identify and neutralize radicals such as Hasan who want to inflict harm on American citizens.