Piece Of Art

Colorado should understand that while it is often noted that deadly "random" shooting events are rare, no one in Colorado can avoid the fact that media-driven rage-filled rampages visit their state often. On December 15, 2007, Dave Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute, opens a debate in the Rocky Mountain News , in the vortex location where people are currently reading the most about their church-related shootings. This is good. Hopefully, Kopel's discussion will continue beyond the pain of these new episodes and, at least, make some inroads into the local editorial decisions on reporting. The two church-involved shootings of December 9th were perpetrated by a young man who lived a mere 13 miles from Columbine. Columbine (known just by the Colorado location name) is today an iconic and infamous event, which happened on April 20, 1999. It is a blueprint for too many mass shootings in schools, universities, malls, churchs, fast food sites, and other l...

Matthew Murray, the Colorado shooter of December 9th, was not too creative, actually. A study of his online "poetry" shows that he routinely lifted lyrics and wording from music groups and others to compose his postings. Media attention in the wake of the Colorado shootings has focussed on how Murray did exactly the same thing with the passages he left behind about those killings. Most were rewritten works from others, including those of Eric Harris, one of the Columbine killers. This blog was the first to point out that Murray also identified Aleister Crowley as one of his models. Kevin Vaughan of the Rocky Mountain News reveals more details of Murray's copycat behavior in his December 12, 2007, article, "Murray posted links to Columbine videos between sprees." Here are extracts from that article: In the hours between deadly attacks on Christian centers in Arvada and Colorado Springs, Matthew Murray posted links on the Internet to videos featuring the Col...

Matthew J. Murray, known online as "nghtmrchld26," wrote his Christian family said he was the End Times' "Prophetic Child." He said they believed that he was the "chosen one." Reporter Sara Burnett of the Rocky Mountain News , on December 11, 2007, was one of the first media sources to reveal that Murray called himself "nghtmrchld26" ("Nightmare Child 26") online. Overnight most but not all of Murray's writings began disappearing from the ex-Pentecostal forums and message boards he used. This relates especially to the investigation on-going since the FBI pulled the messages that Murray incredibly posted between his shootings at Arvada and Colorado Springs. Some of these postings, however, remain in the emails of others who express shock in response to "nghtmrchld26," who was also known simply as "NMC." One such message left by Murray, posted between the shootings, reflects those we have read from other ram...

No one who is aware of the copycat effect should be surprised by what took place this weekend in the wake of the Westroads Mall massacre in Omaha, Nebraska, where eight were killed on December 5, 2007. I was interviewed by Columbus Dispatch reporter Amy Saunders shortly after the Omaha shootings, for her Friday, December 7, 2007, article, "Nebraska shooting raises awareness." One insight I shared with the reporter was that the coming weekend (December 8th-9th) could be an especially dangerous time. I said this in terms of the usual timing of the cycles that happen in the wake of major media-covered shootings. She did not put that in her article. Saunders merely quoted me as saying that events similar to what happened in Omaha are becoming more common. The only direct quotations from me that Saunders used were these: "It's not an isolated incident. In this new age of suicide, these people decide they're going to kill themselves and they want to take people w...

The alternative title for this blog is "Brokaw Blames Blogs." Read on, for more about that. The twilight language of the copycat killers is initially only vaguely revealed in the media accounts. The news organizations' first reactions are ones of sensationalism and pop-psychology, often in ways that may trigger the next rage-filled killing spree. Only through more reasoned pondering may some deeper meanings be known. The "connect the dots" deciphering of these shooters exposes their symbolism from the cult of Columbine, which may assist as a source of future prediction and prevention. "I'm gonna be (expletive) famous." - Robert A. Hawkins. It does not take much analysis to understand that the Omaha mall killer figured he was creating a page for himself in infamy. We know not what influence the Omaha attention had on the shooter of four at Arvada, Colorado's Youth With a Mission center, where two staff members have been left dead, on Sunday,...

In the book, The Copycat Effect , a clear anniversary cycle is noted in well-publicized shootings, which can serve a predictive function. Often these patterns follow a monthly cycle. Currently, there is a strong indication the shootings are following that specific model. The Omaha mall shooting came exactly one calendar month after the school shooting in Finland, which was exactly one calendar month after the school shooting in Cleveland, Ohio. The last three months, remarkably, therefore, have had precisely four weeks to the day between each of these dangerous Wednesdays. The SuccessTech Academy shooting took place on Wednesday, October 10, 2007, at SuccessTech high school in Cleveland, Ohio. The shooter, Asa H. Coon, 14, wounded at least four people, including two teachers and two students; another student was injured fleeing from the school. He killed himself at the end of his shooting spree. He was attempting a copycat of Columbine . The Jokela school shooting occurred on Nove...

SWAT teams were able to respond quickly to Omaha's Westroads Mall shooting because they were on high alert due to President Bush's quiet visit to the Nebraska city. President George W. Bush was in Omaha, Nebraska, on the morning of December 5, 2007. While in Omaha, Bush visited the OneWorld Community Health Centers, a clinic that provides medical, dental and nutritional aid. However, Bush was mainly in Omaha to support candidate Mike Johanns for the United States Senate. The Johanns fundraiser was held at the large estate of billionaire businessman and philanthropist Walter Scott Jr. It was closed to the media. Soon after Bush departed, a mall shooting occurred at a mall in the city. The Westroads Mall shooting occurred on December 5, 2007, beginning at 1:42 p.m. (local time) at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska. The main location of the shooting happened at the Von Maur customer service desk. The gunman was identified as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, who was armed with an SKS a...