Cookie Cutter Mass Killing Incident #249

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Mass confusion/conflicts in initial reporting-- number of deaths, number of shooters, types of guns (AR-15 initially reported, other long guns-- officially now shotgun and pistol), description of shooters.

Reports of multiple gunmen early on, then they get away. Later, story is refined to one lone gunman.

Lone gunman:
-- had mental problems
-- probably was using anti-depressants
-- was a heavy player of violent video games
-- inexplicably passed security check, despite clear problems
-- had unusual religion (Buddhism)
-- link to another mass event (here 9/11)

This one though, is noteworthy for the:
1) obvious mental issues and ability to buy a gun
2) "failure" in being able to get security clearance at a military base despite mental health treatment at VA.
3) he had "secret" military clearance
4) possibly some racial hatred motivation, a trending theme?

Major weirdness-- using a shotgun. Not exactly your weapon of choice for shooting people from a distance. Granted, he was messed up, but still hard to see how he would have killed 11-12 people like this--

The gunman then perched himself above an atrium where he fired down on people who had been eating breakfast, officials said, adding that he used shotgun shells that had roughly a dozen large ball-bearing-like shots in them, increasing the lethal nature of each shot.

“When he discharged, the pieces of lead would spread the farther they went,” the one official said. “It is similar to weapons used in bird shooting but on a more serious scale. These were not bullets but many small pieces of lead flying through the air.”

After firing down on people, the gunmen began to search for more people to shoot, and as he searched, he was confronted by a security guard near an exit, according to the officials. The gunman shot the security guard and took his semiautomatic handgun, then headed back to atrium.

“He runs back upstairs and cranks off more rounds with the handgun and then heads to another stairwell where he confronts a worker there and shoots him,” the official said.

The gunman is believed to have shot the Navy employee, who worked in maintenance, with the pistol near another exit.