3/21/2013

Violent Persons in the Workplace

Employer Response and Prevention Options

Samuel Mayhugh, Ph.D.

Office of the President,
Integrated Behavioral Health
and
Consultant,
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Ater Wynne Employment Seminar

Portland, OR
March 21, 2013

NYPD Active Shooter Recommendations and

Analysis for Risk Mitigation
January 2010
• 281 active shooter incidents from 1966 to 2010 (237 in U.S.)
• Significant variations among shooters and attack elements
• 96% male shooters
• Non-school shooters modal age group 35 to 44 years old
• 98% carried out by a single attacker
• Planning tactics range from very little to extensive
• Average number of deaths is 3, wounded is 3.6
• Location of attacks:
» 29% school
» 23% open commercial
» 22% “other,” churches, police stations, hospitals
» 13% office building
» 13% factory/warehouse

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Overview of Shooters
• Types of Workplace Shooters
• The Violence Process and Drivers
• Shooter Common and Variable Elements
• Accelerators and Triggers of Violence

Violence/Shooter Functioning

Personal functioning driven by:

Thinking — mental process

Feeling — emotional process

Behaving — actions
(within life conditions and situations)
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Thinking Problems
• Suspicions • Strong biases and
• Delusions opinions
• Off track ideas • Obsessing
• Easily distracted • Not considering
• Focus on negative alternatives or
implications of actions
• Blowing things out of
proportion • Poor concentration
• Illogical conclusions • Impaired memory
• Poor decisions for work • Resentful of coworkers
actions

Negative Feelings
• Intense anger • Chronic fatigue
• Hostile emotions • Jealousy
• Feeling arrogant or • Envy
supreme
• Intense guilt
• Feeling powerless
• Intense, dramatic, and • Extremely stressed
unstable moods • Worthless
• Anxiety and panic • Helpless
• Depression

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Negative Behaviors
• Argumentative • Exploiting others
• Refusal to cooperate with • Withdrawing/avoiding
supervisors coworkers
• Rage reactions • Making mistakes
• Impulsive
• Not compliant with work
• Insomnia policies
• Acting like a victim and
blaming others • Bullying
• Accidents • Threatening violence
• Manipulative • Committing violence

Personal Interactions
Multiple Conditions in Multiple Situations

School/
Workplace

Home/
Community
Family

Person/
Shooter

Health/
Finances
Wellness

Social
Network,
Religion 8

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Continuum of Life Functioning

Wide Range Exists

Negative Positive
Unproductive Thinking Productive
Unsafe Feeling Safe
Unhealthy Behaving Stable
Disruptive Healthy
Threatening to: Resilient
- Self
- Others
- Workplace Assets
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Individual Violence Process

NEGATIVE SITUATIONS
Personal, social, political, religious, etc.

INTENSE FEELINGS
Anger, hostility, retaliation, vengeance

IDEAS
“Change is not possible in peaceful way”
“Violence is necessary and justified”

PLANNING
Weeks/Months/Years

VIOLENT BEHAVIOR
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Basic Shooter/Terrorist Drivers

Vengeance – “Violence against oppressor.”
Seung Hui Cho, Bill Phillips, Amy Bishop, Omar Thornton, Robert Hawkins,
Clay Duke, Scott Dekraai, One Goh, James Holmes, Adam Lanza,
Christopher Dorner

World Order Change – “War for Ideology (religion,

legal system, government, environmental, social…)
Faisal Shazad, Andres Breivik, James Brunn, Jared Loughner, James Lee

Materialism – “Get there what I don’t have here.”

Nidal Hasan, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Religious Salvation – “Sacrifice for Eternity.”

Kahlid Aldawsari, Sulejman Talovic

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Shooter Common Elements in

Videos/Cases
• Physical signs of stress and tension
• Intense emotions
• Sense of victimization
• Obsession with the negative situation
• Belief change is not possible peacefully
• Justification of violence
• Shooter death after discharge of violence

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Shooter Variations in Videos/Cases

• Age
• Sex
• Personality – assertive, passive, avoidant,
combative
• History prior to shooting – positive, negative
• Accelerators of violence – personal interactions,
social/political movements, losses, frustrations, movies/internet

• “Triggers” prior to shooting – specific point or event

that detonated the violence.

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Types of Shooters

• Workplace and School Shooters

– Other-centered
• Criminal Terrorists
– Self-centered
• Ideological Terrorists
– Cause centered

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Workplace and School Shooters

“Non-Terrorist” Shooters
• Other-centered
• Persons or company/school assets are
specifically targeted
• Concern is about current and specific
problems; i.e., job termination, conflict with
someone, financial difficulty, marital
problems, bullying, etc.
• Shooter believes the violence will “solve the
current problem”
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Workplace Violence Video

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Discussion of Video

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Bill Phillips, 60 y/o

Trigger – E-mail Performance Review
April 20, 2007
Johnson Space Center - Houston, TX
1 killed, 1 hostage, shooter suicide

• Quiet loner, job was his life

• Company sent email requesting some work
improvement. No plan to terminate his
employment.
• Day of e-mail, bought .38 revolver and
20 hollow point bullets
• 3 hour hostage situation
• Wrote on white board “People call me
stupid.”
• Shot self when SWAT arrived
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Clay Duke, 56 y/o

Panama City, Florida School Board
December 10, 2010
Triggers – Wife fired, family financial loss, Vendetta movie

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Video – Actual Workplace Shooting

Accelerators
Wife terminated
Financial stress
Misperception of legislation/taxes
Obsession with theme of “V” movie on dvd
Obsession with board, especially chairman
Trigger – Belief no change possible without violence
Complications
Students in meeting, female attacker, delayed law
enforcement response.

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Florida School Board Video

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• “I have a motion!” to school board meeting

• Wife employment terminated after 90 days
Clay Duke • School Board budget/tax issue
• Refused to identify wife or why terminated
School/
Workplace
• Wife out of work • Duke believed Supt.
• Unemployment turned tax measure
benefit terminated down then initiated
for wife
Home/
Community after school
• Watching Vendetta Family terminations
Movie • Duke a licensed
massage therapist
Person/
Shooter

• Major financial
• Depressed Health/ difficulties
Finances
• Angry Wellness • “Wealth” major
• Vengeful focus
• Suicidal
• “I will die today”
Social
Network, • Attempted ambush with rifle
• Bipolar Disorder • 5yrs in prison for harassment –
Religion aggravated stalking
• Facebook “Testament”
• “Not evil or monster” - “Wealthy abuse
and enslave 95% of population” - “Rich
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Republicans, rich Democrats are same”
• Profile page has V for Vendetta

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Amy Bishop, 44 y/o

Trigger – Denial of Academic Tenure
February 12, 2010
University of Alabama - Huntsville, AL
3 killed, 3 wounded, shooter arrested

• History of disproportional and

occasionally violent reactions
• Killed brother in 1986
• Investigated for bomb threat
• Arrested for assault in IHOP
• Could swing between rage for
slights and empathy for
students
• Lost battle for job tenure
• “Always about to explode!”
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Amy Bishop
• Demanding
• Conflict with Peers and Managers
• Unsuccessful Meeting Goal of Tenure
School/ • Work not at Par
Workplace
• Support of Husband • Conflicts with
• Killing of Brother Children, youth.
Home/ • Arrested for
Community Violence
Family
• Investigated for
Bomb Threat
• Case Re-Opened on
Person/ Killing of Brother
Shooter

• Anger
• Hostility Health/
• Frustration Finances
Wellness
• Resentment
• No resilience
• Mood swings Social
• Volatility Network,
• Conflict with Social Contacts
Religion 24

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Criminal Terrorists
No Major Ideological Issue

• Self-centered
• Hostile reaction to some frustration, loss, or
damage to ego
• Desire for vengeance “justifies violence”
• Seeks psychological reward through terrorism
• Thrilled by power of firearms, bombs, killing, and
chaos

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Criminal Terrorists (Cont.)

No Major Ideological Issue
• Use soft and opportunistic targets—malls,
theaters, retail stores, office buildings, health
clubs, etc.

• Lack discipline and training of the ideological

terrorist, but more expert weapons use

• Lack of specific goals results in mass murder

and often suicide or death by law enforcement

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Criminal Terrorists (Cont.)

Planning and Preparatory Acts

• Extra ammunition carried

• Shooter often exhibits cold, calm, and
expressionless appearance
• Mental rehearsals and practice firing
prepare shooter
• Avoidance and escape plans almost
non-existent

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Robert A. Hawkins, 19 y/o

Trigger – Depression, Job Termination, Loss of Girlfriend
December 5, 2007
Westroads Mall Shooting - Omaha, NE
8 killed, 4 injured, shooter suicide

• Estranged from parents—lived with friends and their mother

• Medication and therapy for depression by age 6
• At age 14, threatened to kill stepmother with axe
• Criminal record, felony drug charges, and
homicidal threats
• AKM semi-automatic rifle used in shooting
• One hour prior to shooting, mother gave police
his suicide note:
– “I just want to take a few pieces of
S***with me…just think, I’m gonna be
f****** famous”

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James Holmes, 24 y/o

Trigger – TBD, Possible failure, mental illness, obsession with
“dark side villain”
July 20, 2012
Theatre Shooting – Aurora, CO
12 killed, 58 injured,
• Planning over several months
• Purchased weapons & ammo
• IED’s in apartment
• Assumed “Joker” character.
• “Calmly” fired into theatre
• Reportedly “normal” child,
academically very successful, until
Ph.D. program
• Mental health contacts prior
to shooting reported
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Adam Lanza 20 y/o

Trigger – TBD
Dec.14, 2012
Sandy Hook School, Newtown, CT
20 children and 6 adults killed, 2 wounded, shooter suicide

• Details to follow opening of

court documents

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Christopher Dorner
Trigger – Loss of Self-esteem/
February 2013, Big Bear, CA
4 killed, 1 wounded, shooter killed (suicide?)

• Employment terminated
2008
• Second appeal denied
October 3, 2011
• Extensive Manifesto
posted Feb. 2013
• Vengeance toward LAPD,
especially case related
persons and family
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Ideological Terrorists
• Cause-oriented
• Perpetrated for an ideological goal, as
opposed to a lone attack, for a specific
contemporary issue
• Use violent acts intended to create
population fear (terror)
• They deliberately target or disregard the
safety of non-combatants

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Ideological Terrorists (Cont.)

• Narrowly focused
• Highly motivated & Dedicated to a cause
• Acts based on or driven by political,
economic, social, geographic, or religious
elements
• Do not believe change can occur in a
peaceful way; therefore “violence is justified”
• Includes radical environmentalists, racists,
separatists, political groups, and violent
jihadists

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Love Wolf Video

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James Von Brunn, 88 y/o

Ideology – White Supremacist and Anti-Semite
June 10, 2009
Holocaust Memorial Museum - Washington, DC
1 killed, shooter arrested

• Guard killed while trying to • Ex-wife claims “his

assist Von Brunn into door hatred ate him like
cancer”
• Signed with Navy in 1942, • Shooter died in prison
reason given as “patriotic” hospital January 5, 2010
• Honorable discharge in 1956
• Arrested outside Federal
Reserve Board meeting with
shotgun, revolver, knife
(1981)—upset about interest
rates and economic turmoil—
served 6.5 years in prison
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Seung-Hui Cho, 23 y/o

Ideology – Warfare for Oppressed and Poor
April 16, 2007
Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, VA
32 killed, 23 wounded, shooter suicide

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Jared Lee Loughner

Ideology – Anti-government Conspiracy
January 8, 2011
Rep. Giffords’ Event – Tucson, AZ
6 killed, 14 wounded, shooter arrested
Pre-Disturbed Normal State Strange Thinking State Delusional State
3 years prior to shooting 1-2 years prior to shooting Post-Shooting Mug Shot
Approx. 2007 2008 - 2010 January, 2011

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Anders Behring Breivik, 32 y/o

Ideology – “Begin campaign for Pan-European Coup d’États,
deportation of Muslims and execution of militia traitors, by year 2083”
July 22, 2011
Bomb Attack on Labor Party Building - Oslo, Norway
8 killed, many injured, bomber arrested (at later shooting)

• Bomber’s concerns
– “Multiculturalism, Marxist-
oriented governments,
Islamic tyranny…Islamic
demographic warfare”

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Anders Behring Breivik

July 22, 2011
Active Shooter - Post Bomb Attack - Utøya Island, Norway
68 killed, 60 wounded, shooter arrested

• Shooter’s immediate goals

– Assault the current and future Labor
Party Leaders, considered by the shooter
as traitors to “Pure European Culture.” The
“actions are atrocious but necessary.”
– Promote other self-appointed guardians to
also act as “judge, jury, and executioner,
until threats by cultural genocide are gone.”
• Shooter initially imprisoned in what was once a
Nazi concentration camp

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Triggers Exist but Persons

“Don’t Just Snap”
• Violent behavior or potential is rarely new for
perpetrators

• Usually patterns of negative thinking, feeling, and/or

behavior are part of the history

• Triggers intensify the negative elements

• Planning for violent reaction usually takes place over

some time

• During this time, signals, flags, and sometimes threats

exist but are rarely seen as serious or are not reported
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Problematic Conduct for

Reporting and/or Intervention
• History of threats or violence – employment or
criminal
• Using power to control others or as response to
stress
• Bullying, outbursts, excessive anger
• Verbal abuse or harassment by any means or
medium
• Holding grudges, inability handling criticism
• Making excuses, blaming others
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Problematic Conduct for

Reporting and/or Intervention
• Complaints of persecution or injustice
• Victim mindset
• Obsessive intrusion upon others
• Erratic, impulsive, or bizarre behavior generating
fear among co-workers
• Homicidal or suicidal thoughts or ideas
• Severe emotional distress
• Impulsivity and/or low tolerance for frustration

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Problematic Conduct for

Reporting and/or Intervention
• Fascination with weapons
• Preoccupied with violence themes of
revenge or recent violent events, if
discussion creates discomfort or fear in
co-workers
• Any behavior or collection of behaviors
that instill fear or concern that the
person may act out violently
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Summary
• Risk of violence from many different types of
persons. “Profiles” are not helpful and may be
dangerous.

• Knowledge of individual’s Thinking-Feeling-

Behaving patterns and possible potential
reactions to negative events is critical to
prevention.

• Effective risk assessment and violence

prevention requires “all hands on deck,” i.e.,
security, office workers, supervisors, HR, family,
and friends.

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Responding to Potential Violence in the

Workplace
• Evaluate Seriousness
– Access to or presence of weapons
– Hostile or erratic behavior
– Nothing to lose

Consider Threat Type

• Direct Threat
• Conditional Threat
• Veiled Threat

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Warning Signs – Personal Problems

• Family or Social Problems

• Financial Problems

• Physical or Mental Illness

Warning Signs – Personal Problems

• Romantic Obsession

• Domestic Violence

• Substance Abuse

• History of Violence

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Signs of Escalation
• Physical • Behavioral Signs
– Standing tall/posturing
– Pale or flushed
– Raised voice
– Rapid breathing – Change in behavior
– Tensing and clenching – Too much eye contact
– Focused gaze or starring – Increased agitation
– Pacing
– Decreased environmental awareness

Defusing a Potentially Violent Situation

• DOGS
Defusing
Of
Grievance
=
Safety

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De-escalation Techniques
• Bring down the intensity with non-verbal
signals, verbal signals and self control

Non-Verbal
• Confidence but not cocky
• Calm and in control
• Personal space (3 to 4 times more)
• Never touch
• Avoid staring or too much eye contact

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Non-Verbal
• Open posture
• Hands visible
• Do not hold anything

Verbal Expression
• Manage your words and emotions
• Speech slow and calm
• Lower voice level
• Direct and to the point but not accusing

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Verbal
• Allow other person to have their say
• Use I messages
• Avoid negative language or attacking
• Understanding from their perspective

Self-Control
• Control intensity of my language and
emotion
• Don’t get hooked by rising emotion
• Find alternative to conflict
• Don’t personalize the behavior

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Empathy
• Even if wrong, a
hostile person is
acting on
perceptions that are
real to him. Give
him a verbal outlet
to air his grievances.
Understand his
perspective

Listen
• Stop what you’re
doing and give the
person your full
attention. Ask
questions that
clarify their
perspective.

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Avoid Confrontation
• Be calm, courteous, open and honest.

• Never embarrass, demean or verbally

attack a hostile person

Allow Airing of Grievance

• Make eye contact without staring

• Let the person have his say

(not necessarily his way)

• Ignore insults and challenges. Don’t take

them personally.

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Allow Person to Suggest A Solution

• A person is more likely to agree to a
solution he has helped develop.

• Even a very unreasonable person may

have very reasonable suggestions.

Move Toward a Win-Win Resolution

• Preserve individual’s dignity.

• Move focus from what you can’t do to what

you can.

• Call in additional resources, such as a

supervisor, Human Resources, Employee
Assistance Program, etc. If possible, have
individual’s permission to do so.

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Staying Safe
• Never assume violence can not or will not
happen in your workplace.

• Workplace violence should be an on-going

concern of everyone.

• Awareness, training, and communication

can help prevent aggression.

Violent Persons in the Workplace

Employer Response and Prevention Options

Samuel Mayhugh, Ph.D.

Office of the President,
Integrated Behavioral Health
and
Consultant,
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Ater Wynne Employment Seminar

Portland, OR
March 21, 2013

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