P1 First Person: Self-glorified murder-suicide threat assessment

By Lt. Stephen Dintino
Tredyffrin Township (Pa.) Police Department

Law Enforcement Officers are faced with making serious assessments and decisions throughout their duties, particularly during criminal incidents involving hostage taking. In fact, Police Officers, Firefighters, Medics, Military troops, people in all areas of emergency service, and people in all areas of life, assess potential life and safety threats.

Law Enforcement Officers must recognize and consider that some ‘hostage taking’ criminals have no intention of coming out of the structure they’re in, while others have no intention of remaining inside of the structure they’re in.

I term the incidents of the criminals who go into a structure and assault or rape and kill the innocent people inside, and then commit suicide, as “self-glorified murder-suicide” incidents.

The self-glorified murder-suicide criminals have no intention of coming out of the structure before assaulting or raping and killing the innocent people inside, and committing suicide.

Homicide / suicide bombers are included in this category. These are some of the most horrific criminal incidents.

All hostage taking incidents have the potential to degrade into savage, ruthless, killing incidents, and we must be prepared and capable of stopping and mitigating the hostage takers’ criminal acts.

It is critically important to recognize, identify, assess, and to understand the difference between self-glorified murder-suicide incidents and other hostage taking incidents.

From the onset, the tactics necessary to resolve self-glorified murder-suicide incidents are radically different from the tactics necessary to resolve non-self glorified murder suicide incidents, in that physical intervention is necessary to stop the deadly acts of the “Self-glorified murder-suicide” criminals.

Although not absolutely definitive, certain information is associated with self-glorified murder-suicide acts:

• The actors are predominantly and more likely to be male.
• Guns are used in most of the incidents.
• The victims are predominantly and more likely to be female.
• The actors are more likely to have attempted suicide in the past.
• From the onset, the actors have no motive or provision for tangible material gain, as in a robbery. The actors’ perverted self glorification is gained through violence.
• More weapons and materials brought into the structure by the actors increases the self-glorified murder-suicide threat potential.

Consider these realistic hypothetical examples:

A bank robber goes into a bank with a mask on, and with a sawed off shotgun, holds up the bank, steals the bank money, and flees. Generally, the bank robber goes into the bank with the intention of leaving the bank with the stolen money. And, although the bank robber may get caught inside and may dangerously and violently take hostages, the bank robber generally had no intention of staying inside of the bank at the time of his (or her) entrance, and had no intention of committing suicide.

This incident is probably not a self glorified murder suicide incident.

Now consider a person (male) backs his vehicle up to a corporate building in close proximity to an access door, gets out of the vehicle and opens the trunk, removes a rifle, a shotgun, a handgun, a propane tank, and a bulky knapsack. The person then walks into the building and corals a group of people — both male and female — into a room, and takes over the room. The person separates the male workers from the female workers, and lets the male workers out of the room. The person does not let the other female workers out of the room. The male workers flee the area and contact Police.

This incident is probably a self-glorified murder-suicide incident.

It is necessary to review the hostage barricade incidents which occur throughout the nation to determine the defining points of the criminal behavior associated with the incident.

Some recent historical self-glorified murder-suicide incidents are:

• The Columbine High School shootings, Littleton, CO, 20 April 1999
• Red Lake High School shootings, Red Lake Native Indian Reservation, MN, 22 March 2005
• The Bailey High School shooting, Bailey, CO, 28 September 2006
• The Lancaster County, PA Amish School House shootings, Nickels Mines, PA, 2 October 2006
• Virginia Tech University shootings, Blacksburg, VA, 16 April 2007

In order to resolve these types of horrific criminal acts, certain conditions must be in place:

1. The Law Enforcement Officers must understand that there is a difference between self-glorified murder-suicide and other hostage barricade incidents that are not.

2. The Law Enforcement Officers must conduct a rapid assessment of the available incident information, and wisely determine if it is a “self-glorified murder-suicide incident or not.

3. If the Law Enforcement Officers determine that the incident is a self-glorified murder-suicide incident, the Law Enforcement Officers must rapidly consider the available tactical options to resolve the incident.

4. Law Enforcement Officers must be intensely proficient in the execution of the tactics necessary to stop and resolve a self-glorified murder-suicide incident.

The tactics used to resolve self-glorified murder-suicide incidents are based on speed, surprise, distraction / diversion, aggressive force of action, and positive breach.

The tactic of “fighting from the outside” should be considered if it is feasible to contact the criminal from the outside of the building through windows and doors.

Radical tactics must be considered in addition to the conventional tactics.

Law Enforcement Officers should receive the training in the tactics necessary to resolve self-glorified murder-suicide incidents, and should be assessed for proficiency prior to deployment.