This past week we witnessed two incidents where a mentally ill gunman once again caused havoc and loss of life - one in a church and one in an office building.

The ironic side note is that, as far as media attention, the incident where a life was lost in an LDS church was far less covered than a self-proclaimed environmentalist who, at the end, only ended up getting himself killed.

The two incidents I am speaking of, in case you missed them, was the shooting death of a Mormon/The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) Lay-Bishop on Sunday, August 29th in between services in California and the hostage taking, bomb carrying subject, on Wednesday, September 1st in Maryland.

In both incidents the gunmen were shot and killed by police, which is unusual, because most commit suicide, but in a way they each did that anyway in what is known as "suicide by cop". In fact the gunman who shot the Bishop in the church went to his child-hood neighborhood and called police and told them what he had done and where he was; when police arrived he shot at them and they returned fire, killing him.

As we always tell you, every incident is a learning experience and these two are no exception.

These incidents, even though they occurred on opposites sides of the country and in completely different settings, have similarities, which we often see after these incidents.

Both of these gunmen were deemed mentally ill. They both had previous contact and conflict with the organizations they targeted. Both were males between 20 and 50 and acted alone. Both seemed intent to take lives and die by the result of their actions.

These "lone wolf" gunmen are by far the hardest to predict, to stop, and to respond to quickly and effectively...whether they are mentally ill subjects or terrorists.

There are many reviews going on with the shooting at the Discovery Channel offices in Silver Springs, Maryland and a lot of discussion in the security world as to what was done right and what could have been done better. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this incident other than to point out that they seemed to have a pretty secure lobby, even though they had an unarmed security guard (which was one of the people taken hostage). This once again shows that an unarmed security person is no match for an armed gunman, but all the security measures probably stopped the gunman from getting further into the building.

The other thing to point out is that they had an on-site day care with a lot of infants in attendance when this gunman allegedly wearing bombs strapped to his body walked into the lobby that weekday afternoon. From what I can tell by reports and watching the incident unfold live on TV, they seemed to do a good job in communicating the incident with people in the building and getting the children out of harm's way.

The building's extensive CCTV system also assisted police in monitoring the gunman and ultimately helping them plan their strategy as to when and how to go in after negotiations broke down and more violence seemed likely.

I am sure more will come out as this incident is reviewed.

Now, as for the shooting at the church in California.

There isn't a lot to say about the actual incident; the gunman walked into the church between services, asked someone where the "head of the church" was, they pointed to an office where the Bishop was doing some paperwork and the gunman shot and killed him before walking out and leaving the area.

[Just a note about this shooting and statistics. The Christian Security Network does not count crimes against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS church has a corporate security department at their Salt Lake City headquarters that keeps track of all crimes against the LDS church worldwide. So for CSN to track these would be a duplicate effort, so if you didn't see the incident on our website it is not because we are ignoring the incident, but it is being tracked elsewhere.]

All the information about this shooting death suggests the same conclusion; the Bishop did not personally know the shooter. In fact, right after the incident, people at the church said the shooter had no connection with the church at all. But it was later learned that he had been a member of the church many years back, and that is probably why the Bishop or many other church attendees did not know him.

We always teach that every church and ministry must take people they have contact with who are mentally ill and show any signs of hate, violence, or animosity against the church or a church leader, very seriously. They must work with law enforcement and social service workers to keep track of this person and if needed pursue charges if threats are made. Sometimes it isn't until criminal charges are pursued that these people end up getting committed into an institution where they can receive help for their mental illness.

This also highlights the need to protect the leaders of our churches - every church.

Many times the shooter doesn't know the Pastor, Priest, Reverend, Bishop, or Minister personally - they only know that they want to target the "head of the church" and "the person in charge".

The fact of the matter that they are in the position that they are in, makes them a target, even if an incident occurred with the mentally ill subject years back, they will always see the church leader as the target.

Many church leaders will argue they don't need protection on a Sunday or other service times; that they haven't had a problem with anyone or received any threats.

But as we have seen over and over again, especially with these mentally ill active shooters, it doesn't matter - it is the position they are trying to kill, not the man or woman.

Another "wake up call"?

You decide.

In Christ,
Jeff Hawkins
Executive Director

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