If you’ve been paying close attention to the investigation surrounding Sunday’s Texas church shooting in which 26 people were killed and 20 more injured, you may have noticed that police won’t publicly say the shooter’s name.
Officials say there’s a reason for that — they don’t want to inspire copycats by glorifying the killer.
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“We do not want to glorify him and what he has done,” Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Freeman Martin said during a Monday briefing, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
“We don’t talk about the shooter [so as not to] encourage other people to do horrific acts,” added FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs.
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The DPS and FBI identified Devin Patrick Kelley as the shooter who gunned down a rural Texas church on Sunday. The 26-year-old man was a disgraced former member of the Air Force. He was found dead in his vehicle after a high-speed chase following his attack on the church.
Groups like No Notoriety pressure police and media not to use photos or excessive details of mass shooters so as not to glorify the killer.
The group posted to its Facebook page Monday a photo of the alleged Texas killer with his face obscured.
An accompanying caption read: “Do not ignore the known contagion effect associated with media coverage and rampage acts of violence. Don’t make this nobody into a somebody. #Sutherland coward deserves #NoNotoriety.”
