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Gilroy Garlic Festival Shooting: Experts worry killer fits pattern of hate, fueled online

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

San Fransisco Chronicle quoted Erroll Southers of the USC Price School on the perpetrator of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting.

“Still, some experts see signals that the Gilroy shooting may fit a pattern of mass killers whose views have been sculpted online. Many of them follow a similar script: Before raising their guns, they disseminate messages on social media, as though to establish themselves as warriors for a larger cause even though they are about to target innocent people.

“There’s a motivating factor here that’s much more personal … than extremist ideology,” said Erroll Southers, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in violent extremism.

Southers described these shooters in a way that appears counterintuitive: They commit acts of brutality, but want to be remembered for doing something noble.”

Full article here

Bedrosian Center