A tragedy with many holes...

"How this story unfolded is nothing less than bizarre. How is ended however, is all too familiar..."

Being under the weather yesterday, I spent quite a bit time in bed, often times feeling like I was going to die (you know what I mean, the 24 stomach flu). That was the bad news. The only bright spot (and really, it was not bright at all), breaking news was on all day. I could watch and learn about every grisly detail of the California shooting as it unfolded.

So what do we know at this time, the day after? Not a whole lot. However, one thing we did learn was this shooting was unique. It did not fit any mold. That is, except for one. It seems the perp and his wife were Muslims. He was a US born Muslim, working in a professional job at the county social services. He was married, and the father to a 6mo old child. Now here is where the story gets very, very strange.

As current reporting goes, he was invited to an awards ceremony/holiday event in a conference room at a large county social services facility. He got into some kind of dispute, and then left in a huff. A very short time later, he returned with his wife, both decked out in body armor, carrying semi-automatic long guns, lots of clips of ammo, Gopro cameras ready to record, and pipe bombs in tow. Every terror expert who was talked to on any channel said the same thing - this was a finely crafted and planned event. Not spontaneous at all.

One part of the story which will not hold water is this - workplace violence. For someone to race home, grab their wife, deck themselves out in combat gear, drop the newborn baby at daycare and then drive back to the conference room to open fire, is a bridge way, way too far.

So what do we know? He was a devout Muslim. Check. Not opinion - testimony from folks he worked with. Traveled recently to Saudi Arabia. Check. Not necessary relevant as most devout Muslims make at least a once in a lifetime journey to Mecca for their Hajj. And as of this morning, that is where the story ends. Fourteen innocent people dead, seventeen others wounded, and a city rattled to its core.

Was this Paris? No. It was much different. Maybe not as bad (body count), or maybe worse (as it was impossible to predict). If it was the later, we have big, big problems. Like where will the next attack come from if no warning signs are present? 

Stay tuned on this one folks. There is much, much more of this story left to be told.