Web rants raise red flags for violence

Rants and threats posted on the Internet have become a common thread among people who carry out murderous rampages, experts say.

Matthew Murray, the 24-year-old who killed four people at two Colorado religious sites before taking his own life a week ago, had posted numerous online rants, blaming his rage on his mother, Christians and others. Murray quoted extensively from Web postings more than eight years earlier by Columbine High School killer Eric Harris.

Murray repeated this stark description of a state of mind: “I’m full of hate and I love it.” And this warning: “I’m coming for everyone soon, and I will be armed.”

The rants, often posted well before attacks are carried out, create a tantalizing suggestion that authorities could stop the brutality if they could identify threats and act in time.

But legal and technological barriers make it unlikely authorities could identify credible threats on the Internet, experts said. Moreover, the Internet has created dynamics of violence that are different from the past, when a hostile person might have scrawled aggressive thoughts on a wall or broken a window, said Alan Lipman, founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Violence in Washington, D.C.

“The Internet . . . provides an immediacy and anonymity that was not previously available to enraged, alienated adolescents and young adults,” Lipman said. “It not only allows them to immediately document experiences of aggression, rage and violent intent, but to easily share them with others of like mind, creating an echo chamber of violence among emotionally disturbed and/or psychopathic individuals that is both reinforcing and can create escalating violent behavior.”

Writings that indicate rage, despair and violent intent are a “leading indicator and precursor” of murderous episodes, Lipman said, citing a 2002 study of school killings by the U.S. Secret Service.

The expressions of rage that often precede mass killings aren’t confined to the Internet — the killer in the Virginia Tech massacre in April created a videotape he sent to NBC News, and long before the rampage he had turned in classroom assignments portraying violent episodes.

The writings, videos and Web posts reflect mental illness that’s often undiagnosed or untreated. In the Secret Service study, which covered 41 school attacks from 1974 to 2000, virtually every shooter had some mental illness or emotional disturbance, Lipman said.

“As a consequence, these perpetrators are declaring their symptoms to the world,” he said.

Teachers, administrators, parents and peers, who are often first-hand recipients of the expressions of rage, can help prevent violence by seeking treatment for people showing behaviors that can lead to violence, he said.

In Murray’s case, the Englewood resident would log on to discussion forums for ex-members of Pentecostal and fundamentalist churches and talk about growing up in a Christian family, his alleged trauma from 12 years of home schooling, and his rejection from Youth With a Mission in Arvada when he was 19.

“For those of us who know about what it’s like to grow up in Christianity. For those who can’t deal with hearing about people who have suffered at the hand of Christianity . . . welcome to our nightmare,” he wrote under the handle “Chrstngntmr” on July 8.

Murray got this reply from someone using the handle “UnlockDestiny”: “So many abuses have been done in the name of Jesus, and it makes me want to destroy.”

About 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 9, Murray fatally shot two members of Youth With a Mission in Arvada and wounded two others. About 12 hours later at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, he killed two teenage sisters and wounded their father and two other church members.

“I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don’t @#%$

say, ‘well thats your fault’ because it isnt, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no,” Murray wrote under the guise “nghtmrchld.” The post was dated the day of the shootings, at 10:55 a.m.

The Arvada Police Department, with the help of the FBI, is investigating the online postings Murray made before and in between the attacks, said police spokeswoman Susan Medina. Police got permission from a judge to search Murray’s computer, five external hard drives and a PDA.

Diaries, journals, e-mails and other writings relating to “homicidal/suicidal thoughts or plans, religious ideology or anything that connects the people, places and events” of the two shootings were to be examined by investigators in Arvada. According to an Arvada police affidavit, Murray’s mother said her son spent three to five hours a day on the computer, which was in the dining room of their home.

It’s unclear whether Murray’s Web postings long before his rampage were sufficiently threatening to warrant police action. A member of one Web site said another member alerted the FBI to several of Murray’s postings on the day of his attack. FBI Special Agent Rene Vonder Haar said agents were notified at 10:30 a.m. that day. The information was alarming enough that a warning was sent to the Arvada and Colorado Springs police departments.

It was unclear if any other law enforcement agencies were notified, and the FBI declined

further comment, saying the case was not theirs to talk about.

Even explicit threats on the Internet before an attack don’t necessarily prompt action from police because officers don’t patrol Web pages, said inspector John San Agustin, supervisor of the Financial and Computer Crimes Unit for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators need to show a judge they have cause to believe someone’s involved in a crime before they can get a warrant allowing them to search a person’s computer, for example, San Agustin said. That can be difficult, he said, because Web pages rarely have reliable details on the location and identity of the person posting information. Even if a potential crime were identified, investigators wouldn’t know if it happened in their jurisdiction, he said.

“We don’t police what’s on the Internet. We’re kind of a reactive unit,” he said. “Very seldomly does somebody report to law enforcement. Until it’s brought to our attention, we really can’t do anything.”

Web readers should contact police if they see information that looks like a threat to

public safety, San Agustin said. Receiving those reports, though, doesn’t always mean a police agency can take action, he said.

“Where it becomes kind of a problem is when somebody says ‘I may act out on it,’ you don’t know where they’re going to do this, where they’re from,” he said. “You could be talking about something that may be going on in Nigeria, or in the Orient.”

Requiring companies or people to report threats they see on the Internet would be problematic, too, said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. Although few Internet readers or Web page administrators report potential threats of violence, requiring them to do so would create an avalanche of unreliable reports, he said. Police agencies could get tied up chasing reports based on only thin suspicion, a situation that wouldn’t help law officers prevent crime, he said.

That points to a greater need for those in close contact with disturbed people to act on their knowledge, said Lipman, chief of the Center for the Study of Violence. In nearly three-quarters of the school killings included in the Secret Service study, the perpetrators told at least three people about their violent intent, Lipman said.

“These individuals do not merely post onto the Internet,” he said. “They indicate their disturbance in clearly identifiable behaviors, time and again. What we need to do is to teach those who are in regular contact with adolescents and young adults how to identify these behaviors, and how to act.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0187 or perry.swanson@gazette.com and 476-4813 or kim.nguyen@gazette.com

RECORDS OF AGGRESSION

MATTHEW MURRAY

Youth With a Mission-Arvada Chapter, New Life Church shooter Dec. 9, 2007

Killed 4, wounded 5, committed suicide

Internet postings Murray made in between shootings: “You Christians brought this on yourselves.” “I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. ... God, I can't wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world.”

PEKKA-ERIC AUVINEN

Shooting at high school in Tuusula, Finland on Nov. 7, 2007

Killed 8, wounded 10, committed suicide

Auvinen described his plans in videos posted on You-Tube. In another Web posting, Auvinen wrote: “I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.”

SEUNG-HUI CHO

Virginia Tech shooting April 16, 2007

Killed 32, wounded 25, committed suicide

Cho recorded a videotape and sent it to NBC the day of the shooting. It’s been posted on several Web sites, including CNN.com, MSNBC.com and YouTube.com. On the video he said: “You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cognac weren’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.” “You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.” “When the time came, I did it, I had to.”

MARCO LEE

Accused of fatally shooting Colorado Springs police officer Kenneth Jordan on Dec. 4, 2006

Suffered several gunshots as police returned fire

Prosecutors have requested the death penalty for Lee. While his case is different from others, Lee’s MySpace. com profile showed pictures of him holding liquor and a gun. His handle was “glock023.” He listed his heroes as the “North Hollywood Shootout” bandits, who used automatic assault rifles to wound 12 California police officers and two pedestrians during a botched 1997 bank robbery. “I love shooting guns,” he apparently wrote on the Web site.

KIMVEER GILL

Dawson College shooting in Montreal, Canada on Sept. 13, 2006

Killed 1, wounded 19, committed suicide

Gill posted pictures of himself on the Internet with a rifle and said he was feeling “postal.” He wrote on the Web site www.vampirefreaks.com: “Work sucks ... school sucks ... life sucks ... what else can I say? ... Life is a video game and you've got to die sometime.”

RICKY RODRIGUEZ

Killed a prominent former member of the Christian sect The Family International on Jan. 8, 2005

Killed 1, committed suicide

Rodriguez recorded a videotape that has been featured on several Internet sites, including ABC.com and CNN. com. In the video he said: “Anger does not begin to describe how I feel about these people. I’ve seen how ugly humans can get.” “There’s this need that I have. ... It’s a need for revenge. It’s a need for justice.”

ERIC HARRIS

Columbine High School shooter along with Dylan Klebold on April 20, 1999

Killed 13, wounded 23, committed suicide

On Harris’ personal Web page (date unknown): “I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things.” Natural selection is “the best thing that ever happened to the Earth. Getting rid of all the stupid and weak organisms.” “I’m coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the (expletive) teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. ... God, I can't wait til I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out. All I want to do is kill people.”

TAKE ACTION

The biggest mistake when someone says they want to hurt themselves or others is to brush it off, said Alan Lipman, founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Violence in Washington, D.C.

“No. 1, most important, take it seriously,” Lipman said. “You have to take this seriously, get over your own social discomfort and be willing to take action.”

Other signs of trouble include significant mood changes, increases in anger, hopelessness, helplessness, and social withdrawal. Taking action could be as simple as asking the person if he or she needs help, Lipman said.

For someone who indicates a suicidal or homicidal intent, it’s important to direct the person to professional help, often from a crisis-intervention hotline. The suicide prevention hotline in the Pikes Peak region is 596-5433. The nationwide hotline is 1-800-273-8255.

If a crisis-intervention hotline isn’t an option, Lipman said, “Take them to the emergency room. Put them in your car and drive them to the ER.”

Emergency room staffs are prepared to conduct psychological assessments and start treatment.

“That treatment will very likely prevent the actions that otherwise occur,” Lipman said.

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