The Lancaster School Shootings

Like most of my colleagues and neighbors, I've been following the Lancaster school shootings with great interest. I've been wanting to blog about it, but I'm hesitant to jump in with both feet.

So far, I don't know what to make of it. When the news first hit, a friend of mine and I both assumed that the motivation for the shooting was that the shooter had been sexually molested, probably at a school. Instead, the information coming out makes no sense.

The shooter left a message that he had molested two children about 20 years ago, and the memory has always been very exciting and vivid to him. The women, who at the time were 4 and 5 years old, have no memory of this. That's not surprising. At that age, they might not. However, it's very unlikely that he didn't offend for another 20 years, and it's even more unlikely that this would motivate this kind of behavior. Instead, he would be expected to reproduce the same events a second time. Not this kind of bizarre, carefully planned act.

A second explanation left in his messages was that he was angry at God for the death of his daughter soon after birth. Again, his current behavior has no link with that past trauma. I can see suicide, perhaps even a dramatic suicide, but not one connected with assault on children, most of whom he apparently knew.

No, I'm afraid we're still missing some pieces of the puzzle. I'll keep an eye out for more information.