By Pat Culverhouse
(Editor’s note: First of two part story on a recent Minden Police Department sponsored-training session featuring nationally-known expert on profiling dangerous individuals and predicting violent incidents.)
Not many individuals have personally interviewed hundreds of the most violent criminals in the country; criminals that include serial killers, school shooters, mass murderers and juvenile murderers.
Even fewer can get some of those killers to talk openly about their crimes, and their motives, to groups of law enforcement officers. Phil Chalmers is one of those few who can.
Chalmers is a nationally-known criminal profiler, best-selling author and television personality. His book “Inside the Mind of a Teen Killer” was the result of a 15-year study into causes, warning signs and triggers that cause young people to kill. His expertise has been featured on numerous television shows including A&E’s “Killer Kids” and “Crime Watch Daily” on Fox.
Chalmers takes his information on the road, bringing law enforcement and public entities including school personnel a look at the “who and why” of violent offenders. His training session includes unedited crime scene photos, videos and first-person conversations with convicted killers, and that’s what he brought to Minden for local law enforcement officers.
Why does Chalmers think talking to convicted killers, even in a classroom environment, is an important piece of the puzzle for law enforcement officers?
“Every year in the United States we have 4,000 unsolved murders,” he said. “I’m willing to work with anyone in law enforcement. I’m not an expert, the killers are and that’s why we need to talk to them.”
An important piece of information Chalmers shared with officers covered identifying potential killers.
“Killers no longer look like killers,” he told officers. “You have to get over the mindset of a killer’s appearance. They look normal, they seem normal. I went to death row and was surprised at what I saw.”
In one of his earliest experiences, Chalmers said he interviewed Shawn Sellers, a triple murderer on death row in Oklahoma for crimes he committed at age 16. “He was a Satanist…soft spoken, probably nicer than me,” he said.
In the world of today, especially with society’s attitude toward law enforcement, his advice to officers is clear. “Everyone is a killer until they prove they aren’t. You have to be very careful. It’s crazy out there.”
Chalmers said he has found there are five types of killers: teens up to age 19; school shooters are an actively enrolled student; mass murderers who kill four or more at one lotion at one time; spree killers who kill two or more over a period of time; and serial killers who kill two or more over a period of time usually with a cooling off period.
Much of Chalmers’ presentation centered on juvenile offenders and school shooters. School killings were first recorded in 1764 in Pennsylvania, “…so the point is there is nothing new. School shootings began in 1900 to 1909, but there weren’t a lot of people killed,” he said.
Things changed around 1990 when Chalmers said a combination of factors caused the nation to focus on school tragedies.
“About that time, we allowed kids access to violent video games. The ‘90s was a decade of violent video games and all of a sudden we had school massacres. We began to see kids going into schools killing as many people as they could…using weapons they see in video games,” he said.
And, Chalmers said, the media sensationalized those incidents and even profited from them.
Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, was the site of what is still the deadliest high school massacre, he said. In that 1999 incident, 12 students and one teacher died; 21 others were wounded. Deadliest college shooting incident occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007.
“An untrained kid killed 32 people, the third deadliest shooting in U.S. history,” he said. “And he proved you do not need an assault rifle to carry it out. This one had a .22 rifle and a 9MM handgun. This shows there are no statistics or correlation between deaths and the weapon used.”
To carry out the deadly shootings requires two factors, and those do not include the type of weapon, Chalmers said. “These killings depend on how much time you give the killer and how accessible are the victims. It only takes minutes. There were no locks on doors at Virginia Tech and in others, the doors are wide open.”
Chalmers cited 13 reasons kids resort to killing, noting a young persons needs only three to six of those to become a murderer. Number one, he said, is a home where there is no father or the father is abusive. Ranking second is experiencing bullying at school. Also ranking high is an unstable or abusive home life.
Other reasons include an obsession with deadly weapons and violent entertainment including video games, torture films and pornography; suicidal ideologies; abusing illegal drugs, alcohol or prescription medication; a desire to be famous; involvement in gangs, cults or hate groups; peer pressure; living in poverty; no spiritual guidance or home discipline; displaying a mental illness.
“We need to be looking for warning signs because there are possible killers in any school,” Chalmers said. “Top signs are killing or torturing animals, setting fires, voyeurism, drawings of people shooting people in the head, posting pictures on social media with weapons…you might get only one warning sign, so pay attention.”
While all the warning signals may help identify potential young killers, it takes a “trigger” to make them take the most extreme measures, Chalmers said.
He cited six triggering incidents including: being suspended or expelled from school; being arrested; a dispute with parents over curfew, video games, cell phones and such; being dumped by a girlfriend or boyfriend; bullying incidents; parents telling them they can’t date someone.
“The number one trigger for male young killers is being dumped by their girlfriend,” Chalmers said. “For young females, the trigger is when parents tell her she can’t date someone. And, she will get her boyfriend to help.”
Officers heard directly from a school shooter who is currently serving a 50-year-to-life sentence in prison when Charles Williams phoned Chalmers during the session. Williams killed two students and wounded 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, California, on March 5, 2001. He was 15 years old at the time.
Williams told the class he had been bullied at the school “…for a couple of months…” before going to school where he “…didn’t just shoot bullies, but everyone I could.” His weapon that day was a .22 caliber, eight-shot revolver.
Williams apparently was looking for someone to stop him from committing the murders, but said help did not come. Some classmates were warned to not attend school that Monday, but a couple of them suggested who he should shoot; others said “I was a bitch if I didn’t do it,” he said.
Williams also told the class his father took him to the school guidance counselor on Friday, three days prior to the shooting. “He told me to toughen up, that boys will be boys. Then, over the weekend, I told people not to go to school Monday.”
Chalmers said school officials need to be more aware of warning signs and do more than simply say they’re concerned when incidents are reported. Textbook triggers and warning signals are too often ignored, and special training should be encouraged, he said.
Graphic content of today’s most popular video games plays a large part in desensitizing youngsters, and that leads to some of the most violent crimes, Chalmers emphasized. He displayed movie posters, movie trailers and music videos to make his point.
“Video games have such graphic content. Guns and violence being marketed to kids is like a college course on guns,” he said. “Why do kids want to use assault type weapons? Because politicians allow it to be available to kids and do nothing about it.”
Those video games are a multi billion-dollar business and major retailers are left to their own devices when determining who can and can’t make a purchase. On its first day on the shelves, popular game Grand Theft Auto V sold more than $800 million, Chalmers said.
“Video game companies make their own rules…game companies rate themselves,” he said. “Stores make their own rules who can buy. Grand Theft Auto V has six billion dollars in sales to date. The video market makes more than the music market. They’re very powerful.”
All the outside influence on youngsters means both law enforcement and school officials must be aware at all times. Schools, he said, have to be brought “out of denial” that dangers exist practically everywhere.
“We have to help troubled kids. We need to get the names of people who can work with them like social workers, counselors and law enforcement,” Chalmers said. “We need facilities for kids to receive help. We can’t save them all but we can save some. Unfortunately, we can’t go home with them where many of the problems begin and continue.”
