“This was, quite frankly, a maniac who decided he wanted to take lives,”

Copycat shooter with a manifesto, armed with the usual kit: A plate carrier, an AR-15, and a Glock.

While I can see this is a racially motivated shooting, I think this pattern indicates some deeper… suicidal, martyrdom ideology. The intent includes the suicide. It’s suicidally motivated, too. These plans include the repetitive messaging of a newsfeed marching down the list of mass shootings by scared whitr supremacists. Racial killing, suicide, manifesto, and the date makes it a copycat killing. Is he truly a maniac, if so many are falling into this same set of cowardly cries for help?

I feel no sympathy for the dead shooter. But I stare into the abyss, feeling I must empathize with the scared white supremacist who does this next.

Stochastic Terrorism (wiki)

I must empathize with the scared white supremacist who does this next.

Really, though? Conservatives do no empathize with you. They see empathy as a weakness to exploit. Do not empathize with them unless you’d like to become their next victim.