MSNBC Analyst Says Reddit, COVID Isolation Could Have Radicalized Minneapolis Shooter

MSNBC analyst Christopher O’Leary said multiple factors, including the effects of COVID isolation, Reddit, and “bad parenting” — may have radicalized the shooter who attacked a Minneapolis Catholic church on Wednesday.

O’Leary, a former FBI counterterrorism official, told host Chris Jansing that law enforcement officials will have a better idea of what spurred the deadly attack after reviewing his online habits.

“What I think is significant is, you know, the videos and the manifestos and all of that will go to his motive and his ideology. That is all going to be gone through. And, you know, if he is on Reddit or if he’s on any of these other chat platforms that have tended to radicalize people in the past,” O’Leary said. “Who else was he engaging with? Authorities will be trying to identify them and may have concern about them. Or, did they help motivate him and radicalize him to carry out this shooting?”

A moment later, he expanded on the factors he believes could have played a role in this attack and similar shootings in the past.

“Whether it’s a terrorist organization or, you know, the variety of ideologies that different people follow, they’re following them because they have susceptibility. There’s various push pull factors. Maybe it’s some kind of mental break. Maybe it’s their life has, you know, gone down the toilet and they have no hope.”

He continued: “Maybe they have bad parenting. [It could be] a variety of things — the effects of covid and the isolation and what’s called the ‘gamification influence,’ where young men are growing up, you know, being raised by video games.”

O’Leary’s comments came a few hours after the gunman shot and killed two children, ages 8 and 10, inside Annunciation Roman Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. The shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, injured another 17 people, including 14 kids, according to local police.

You can watch O’Leary discuss the potential factors behind the shooting via MSNBC above.