The sheriff detailed how a shooter armed with several guns walked into a morning writing class Thursday at a rural Oregon community college and killed nine people. He described how investigators found still more weapons at the man’s home.
But when it came time to reveal the shooter’s name, Sheriff John Hanlin adamantly refused, saying, “I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act.”
Like Hanlin, law enforcement officials are recently refusing to name mass shooters, hoping that not immediately identifying them will reduce the chance of their notoriety and keep their actions from inspiring others.
There’s little research to suggest the practice prevents copycats. And criminologists and ethicists worry that withholding names will make it harder to assess a mass killer’s motivations and spot trends that could help prevent future violence.
Knowing the names “and their histories, lets us better understand the larger social patterns, policies and tensions leading up to their crimes,” said Vanderbilt University professor Jonathan Metzl, who called the effort understandable but misguided.
Families of mass shooting victims have long urged journalists to avoid using the gunmen’s names and photos in public, saying the sight of them renews their pain and turns troubled murderers into celebrities.
Last year, a police chief in Washington state would not identify a 15-year-old boy who killed himself and four friends at a high school, saying, “I will not promote the motivation by spending any time on the shooter.”
A sheriff in suburban Denver refused to speak the name of a high school senior who killed himself and a classmate in December 2013, saying “he deserves no recognition.”
And throughout the four-month trial of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes, prosecutors repeatedly referred to him as “that guy,” pointing to Holmes seated at the defense table, over angry objections from his attorneys.
The grandmother of a female student who survived the rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, said the shooter gave another student a package to deliver to authorities. However, it is unclear whether Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer sought notoriety.
Media organizations routinely name mass shooters, reasoning that the name is the key detail that helps unravel and answer broader questions about the killer’s motivations and hold government accountable.
Only with a name can the public know, for example, whether a killer shouldn’t have been able to buy a gun or if authorities missed red flags.
“We wouldn’t know his criminal history. We wouldn’t know his educational history. We wouldn’t know his social history,” said Kelly McBride, a vice president at The Poynter Institute and an expert in media ethics.
The Associated Press includes the names of the perpetrators or suspects involved, except in situations involving minors, AP Standards Editor Thomas Kent said. “The names are a matter of public record, and reporting names eliminates the possibility of rumors spreading about who the person involved may or may not be,” he said.
Law enforcement officials point to a recently released study suggesting a “contagion effect” after mass shootings that garner national and international headlines. Similar incidents were more likely to happen within an average of 13 days, said the study’s lead author Sherry Towers, a research professor at Arizona State University.
Researchers’ analysis came largely from news reports, she said.
