The mind and motivations of a mass bomber

The Austin bomber suspect, Mark Anthony Conditt, died early this morning, after blowing himself up in his vehicle after officers closed in on him.

ABC 17 spoke with a Law Enforcement Training Institute (LETI) instructor today on the mind of a mass bomber or suspect like this.

LETI Instructor, Adam Duncan told us, “there’s an internal motivator that drives them to commit a crime, and then those crimes often escalate.”

It is the motivation behind the crime that determines if it is a terrorist act or a psycho or sociopath.

Terrorists are looking for the public to be frightened, while on the other hand, a psychopath, “they really don’t care so much about headlines,” said Duncan. They are motivated instead by an internal drive such as trauma or mental illness.

Duncan told us there can be multiple kinds of collaborators nowadays, “knowing collaborators that we would traditionally think of or it could be, he had access to the internet, he got on Google and started doing his research.”

The Internet has made crime-planning a whole lot easier.

“The time it takes to plan is almost as unique as the suspect that commits the crime,” said Duncan.

There are also some signs and behaviors to watch out for, such as a lack of empathy, a violent way of dealing with anger, animal abuse and antisocial behavior just to list a few.

Duncan also emphasized that it is important to “say something, if you see something,” but he said to continue to say it, until it is heard.