MRC Bulldog Award winner Drew Holden is always assembling X threads of disturbing media framing. Right now, it's noticing that several "mainstream" media outlets are posting pieces showing an alarming degree of sympathy for Rahmanullah Lakwanal, the suspected shooter of two National Guard members in DC (one has died). The killer is part of a morally complex story, they report.
ABCNews.com put three reporters on the Poor Thing story: Pierre Thomas, Aleem Agha, and Luke Barr. Shooting innocent people is a "potential mental health crisis."
As investigators continue to delve into what may have motivated the suspect in the deadly National Guardsmen shooting last week, a portrait of a life of increasing financial stress and a potential mental health crisis has emerged, sources familiar told ABC News.
Additionally, multiple sources said that investigators are looking into the impact of the recent death of an Afghan commander, who allegedly worked with the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
The death of the commander -- whom Lakanwal is said to have revered -- had deeply saddened the suspect, sources said.
This may have compounded on Lakanwal’s financial burdens, including not being employed, having an expired work permit and allegedly struggling to pay rent and feed his children, sources said.
The Washington Post needed four reporters -- Susannah George, Antonio Olivo, Warren P. Strobel and Jeremy Roebuck -- for a report headlined "After service in CIA-trained unit, alleged National Guard shooter struggled to adapt in U.S." The killer "struggled to adapt," the poor thing.
(Meanwhile, Wednesday's Post Opinion newsletter leads with this headline on a George Will column spinning off a Post story alleging the shooting of survivors of a drug-boat bombing: “A sickening moral slum of an administration.”)
The shooter was not "sickening." He was "solid" in his CIA-trained unit:
Lakanwal was a “solid” soldier with “decent English,” according to a person who worked with the Zero Units in Afghanistan and met him in the months before the Taliban takeover of the country…
“They are extremely proficient in combat, very loyal,” they said, speaking about the Zero Units in general.
Anonymous sources can be so helpful in establishing narratives! An "Afghan commander" also added a sympathetic touch:
Many former Zero Unit fighters have been struggling, both financially and mentally, during their time in the United States as they deal with their war injuries, any post-traumatic stress carrying over from battle, and an inability to adjust to life in a country whose language and culture they don’t understand
Then there's the "Americans die, minorities hardest hit" angle. Our friends at KTRH in Houston sent us this story from Chris Kenning at USA Today: “Fear and anxiety: Afghans in the US seek answers after DC shooting".
The suspect is an Afghan national, and that revelation has led to policy changes, political fallout and anxiety for [Tamim] Bedar and others.
Across the country, shaken Afghan communities have strongly condemned the shooting while pleading to not let one person’s violence define a community.
“There’s a lot of fear within the community that there will be collective punishment because of the act of one individual,” Bedar said.
There is no need to find something "complicated" when it's not.
