The ‘serious red flag’ for a potential school shooter? An obsession with other mass shooters

The Annunciation Catholic Church shooter wrote in a journal they were “morbidly obsessed” with mass shootings and had a “deep fascination” with the Sandy Hook school shooter.

On the firearms and magazines used in the attack, the shooter scrawled the names of other mass killers, ranging from the Unabomber to the Columbine attackers to the Tree of Life synagogue shooter. The goal was to “honor past killers,” the shooter wrote in the journal.

The attack on August 27 killed two schoolchildren – ages 8 and 10 – and wounded 21 others, including students and elderly parishioners.

The writings indicate the shooter had what Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara described as a “deranged fascination with previous mass shootings.” It’s a characteristic that makes the shooter “like so many o