As per normal, some folks are upset that law enforcement has not immediately announced the name, and we all know the reasons why everyone wants to know the name and where the gun came from.
You will sometimes here military and intelligence people using the term OODA Loop. Increasingly, my friends in law enforcement use the same term.
For those who never heard of OODA, great idea to study up. This is worth the time to web search and learn. Applications are endless.
I often witnessed OODA used in war, especially with special operations types, and with the Deuce Four battalion in Mosul. Basically you work to observe, orient, decide, and act so quickly that your enemies cannot keep up. By making accurate decisions and acting quickly, you can defeat a far superior foe, or catch terrorist rats who would have gotten away.
Chances are, this latest mass shooting falls into one of two broad categories:
1) Not terrorism
2) Terrorism
If it was some sort of criminal act, maybe by a local person, law enforcement will want to move as quickly as possible to track back on the suspect(s), secure evidence, check residence and more. The suspect(s) may have left a house full of bodies for all the cops know, or maybe the suspect(s) family and friends will see the name on television and start tampering with evidence. Nobody knows. Gotta move fast.
2) Terrorism: this is what I have seen in war so much. Bam! We catch a fish, or a bunch of them, dead or alive. Exploit their phones, fingerprints, eye scans, pocket litter, anything they have. The great units like Deuce Four or special operations units often do not even take time to take the prisoners or bodybags back to base. The intelligence they get leads to next target, then next, then next.
I started calling them "cascading raids." Once a cascade starts, you might not sleep for a long time as we drive around and do raid after raid while intel keeps pumping back and the Soldiers pump more information back to the intel people in Baghdad and USA and wherever else. It can be very, very fast. Literally real time, such as we were turning a corner one day and an enemy was in a street corner saying they just turned the corner in front of me.
I published about cascading raids in 2005: Battle for Mosul IV
Or A-10 pilots getting live radio chatter, translated in real time, "Oh no! The Monster just killed Wahid! I am going to the cache now." And then he gets killed going to the cache about 1 minute later by the next Monster. (Taliban sometimes called A-10 "The Monster.)
And it goes on and on and on. They keep talking not realizing the Monster has giant ears and gets translations back at "UN translation speed." Bam, bam, bam. Stack those bodies. That is OODA.
More broadly, if the shooter turns out to possibly be a terrorists, Canadian law enforcement and intelligence will immediately exploit that, and pass it over to US intelligence who may immediately push back vital information to Canada, or hit our own related target in Atlanta.
Or maybe he has connections in UK, France, Germany, Thailand -- got to immediately push that information to them and they might literally be hitting targets as you read this.
Or maybe he has relations in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or has been communicating with a suspect in Bangkok. If so, you can bet they will be getting visits as quickly as possible.
Got to keep the name(s) quiet as long as possible if this is a terrorism case with links who might get spooked by a CNN broadcast.
Patience. The hunters must hunt. Let's see what they bring back.
Officials just released the suspect’s name: Matthew Vincent Raymond, 48.