Reading newspaper accounts about Aaron Alexis, the Washington mass murderer, it’s abundantly clear he was a highly disturbed man. His hearing voices and complaints about electrical vibrations directed at him from outside his body indicated a specific psychiatric disorder, namely, Paranoid Schizophrenia. He was reportedly seen by mental health professionals at various times and was described as having a volatile temper.
There are chilling reports about Mr. Alexis which bring to mind James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado shooter and Adam Lanza, the Newtown, Connecticut mass murderer. In these horrific instances, reports of the shooters’ mental illnesses emerged after the incidents, which left many innocents dead or injured. However, the existence of these people’s mental illnesses were known before the rampages took place.