US Army special forces Sergeant charged with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in Illinois mass shooting.

 

Mugshot of Sergeant Duke Webb. CBS News/WIFR-TV.

An active duty US Army special forces Sergeant has been charged with murder and attempted murder for a mass shooting in Rockford Illinois. CBS News. The attack occurred at a bowling alley that had an attached bar. The three dead were men in their 60's and 70's while another man in his 60's was injured in addition to two teenagers there to pick up food. No motive has been released for the attack and the crime seems random as the suspect, Sergeant Duke Webb, had no apparent relationship with the victims or business. Webb is a 1st Sergeant in the Army and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and worked in operations and intelligence.  

My Comment:

This incident flew under the radar as all the news has been about the stimulus deal or the bombing in Nashville. But I think this is an important story as well. This attack was very unusual and seems to be truly pointless. The attacker had no reason to shoot these people. 

It sounds like Webb had two handguns and surrendered when police arrived. They came pretty quick and probably saved lives. It's not clear why he surrendered when he could have fought with them but I it's a good thing that he was stopped. 

No motive has been released but I wonder if this guy just snapped. 2020 has been an absolute disaster for just about everyone and I don't doubt it was a bad year for Webb as well. I don't see any indication that this was a planned attack so some random thing might have set him off. If it was planned it wasn't that good of a plan as he could have killed a lot of other people. 

Mass shootings have almost disappeared in 2020 largely due to the fact that most businesses and schools are closed. Even this attack was on a place that was essentially closed. Only the bar area and kitchen was open so there weren't a lot of targets. 

I don't know how important the fact that this attacker was in the Army. It doesn't sound like he was a front line soldier but he was in the special forces and was fairly high ranked for a NCO. He's not the kind of guy you would expect to commit an attack like this. Plus I am guessing that he was evaluated and background checked if he was in this line of work. The attack does not make much sense.