William Achison knew exactly why the two FBI agents were at his door.
“About my internet history or whatever?” He said as the duo entered his family’s modest home in a remote area of northwestern New Mexico on March 24, 2016.
The FBI visit was sparked by an alarming post Achison left on a news bulletin weeks earlier, according to court records. Achison, 21, said he was plotting [a] “mass shooting” and the search for “weapons that are good for killing many people within budget”.
But “I’m not the type to actually do any of these things,” Achison told agents, according to a recording of an interview received exclusively from NBC News. FBI agents agreed, their report said, and closed the case.
The following year, on December 7, 2017, Achison entered through an unlocked door of his former high school in the Aztecs, New Mexico, and used a legally purchased semi-automatic pistol to kill Casey Marquez, a cheerleading gymnast, and Francisco Paco. Fernandez, footballer. He then turned his weapon on himself as police approached. It was one of 50 school shootings in 2017.
An NBC News study of Aztec high school shootings – including a review of government recordings and an audio recording of an FBI interview with the future shooter – found a series of missed opportunities that point to what some experts say are national flaws in the way which authorities assess and respond to potentially violent domestic extremists.
An armored door was erected in front of the Aztec high school after the shooting. (NBC News)
Missed signals in the case reflect what happened before the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, when the FBI failed to respond to signals about the shooter, and in Oxford, Michigan, where school officials were accused of ignoring obvious warning signs.
“This is another example of systemic failure,” said James Dansley, a mass shooting expert who co-founded The Violence Project. “There is no national uniform standard that everyone follows on how to carry out these threat assessments and how to put these points together.”
The story continues
In the months before the shooting, Achison left a trail of racist hatred and despair in publicly available online publications that authorities have never seen, according to court records. On the day of the killings, he wore a thumb with a note that read: “If things go according to plan, today will be when I die. I go somewhere and equip myself, then I hold a hostage in class … then I blow my brains out. “
But there were many warning signs that authorities saw. Crucial errors, according to court records, government reports and experts who reviewed the NBC News case include:
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School officials never notified police when Achison was removed in 2012 after he wrote the timeline of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado on a whiteboard, an act experts called a telltale indicator of potential violence.
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The FBI did not inform the high school after it discovered the March 2016 publication in which Achison threatened to shoot, then closed his investigation without following, after Achison told agents he was fascinated by mass murderers, he published violent fantasies online and was once suicidal.
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After improper communication with the FBI, local police published a “watch out” bulletin at the station, using the name and photo of Achison’s older brother, and never followed to correct the mistake.
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As the FBI closed the case, the bureau was unable to find Achison’s online connection to an 18-year-old man who shot dead nine people in Munich just four months after his interview with agents.
“There were many, many red flags,” said Jamie Latin, whose daughter Casey was shot and killed. “There is a lot to be held accountable by the school, the Aztec police department, the FBI, the shooter himself, his family. Everyone is guilty, everyone is guilty. ”
Four years later, Latin says she is numb with grief.
“I know she’s gone. I know he will not return. But I still haven’t had to hit that wall because I’m dealing with her death every day – the circumstances that led to her death, the people responsible for her death, “she said. “I still have a really long process ahead of me. I had my child for 17 years. Her death will never leave me. “
Neither the school district nor the Aztec police would comment on the article, citing a case of wrongful death by Latin and her lawyer, Luis Robles. The FBI also declined to speak, although a judge dismissed a lawsuit for the family’s wrongful death against the bureau for technical reasons, ruling that the FBI was immune from a lawsuit over its decision not to investigate Achison further after the 2016 interview.
In a brief phone call, Achison’s father, Wayne Achison, said: “I blame the school system because he was bullied and they didn’t do anything about it. Instead, they approved. “He would not give details.
Outside the Aztec high school, a sign instructs visitors to register at the office. The shooter entered through an unlocked door in 2017 (NBC News)
Achison was out of school for four years when he fired. His father was with him when he legally purchased the murder weapon, a Glock pistol, at a sporting goods store on November 3, 2017, according to a report by the State Police in New Mexico.
“I had a fucking life”
It was around 3pm on March 24, 2016, when the two FBI agents arrived, greeted by Achison’s parents.
He quickly approached the agents, and before they could even answer a question, he began telling them about his online interaction with the infamous mass shooter.
“I’m not really crazy like these people,” he said. “Like, let me just give you a briefing. So, around 2007, this guy, this guy, Peka Auvinen, he was from Finland. He went crazy – he killed eight people. … there are cults that actually worship this type of people. “I talked to him six times because I got to his channel through Amazing Atheist.”
Achison also told FBI agents that he had been repeatedly beaten and stabbed by thugs. “My body is covered in stab wounds,” he said. “I think I had a fucking life.”
He was interrupted by an agent. “Let me make it clear to you, William.” It is not against the law to be an atheist. It is not against the law to be against anything. What is against the law is when you take it to a completely different extreme and publish publications and … or act according to these anti-feelings. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Achison replied, “Yes. Like, obviously, I’m not the type to actually do any of these things. “
The agent said, “I guess my question to you is, what confidence can you give us?”
The future school shooter replied, “Well, you guys can, damn it, put me on a watch list and watch me and stuff.”
But there is no watch list for school shooters. What the agents did, according to FBI records, was to close the case without further investigation.
“Based on interviews conducted with the subject and family members of the subject, c [FBI] sees no threat to the security of the United States, “the report concluded. In addition, the subject, although claiming to have seen a psychologist in the past, did not have access to firearms, explosives or other destructive devices and insisted that online publications were related to the subject’s video games and / or trolling activities for the sole purpose of cause controversy on the internet. “
The story ends: “As such, on [FBI] does not see an immediate threat to schools and / or the public in the Aztec, NM or surrounding areas. “
Indicators of violence
In a survey of mass shooters, the Everytown Research & Policy group found that from 2009 to 2020, more than half of the perpetrators showed at least one dangerous warning sign before the shooting, as threats of violence. In combination, they claimed 596 lives and injured another 260, the study found.
Achison is not the only person to have killed after being interviewed by the FBI and an assessment of the threat. The FBI has admitted to interviewing a man in 2020 who fatally shot eight people last year at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. The bureau also famously interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev – and closed the case – two years before he staged the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013.
But mass shooting experts say they can’t recall an FBI interview that was made public. They say the FBI’s one-hour exchange with Achison paints a picture of a young man showing various signs of violence.
“When I read that, it was like, oh my God, it’s so disturbing,” said Gillian Peterson, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University in Minnesota and co-founder of Densley’s The Violence Project.
Achison told agents he was suicidal. He was fascinated by guns and mass archers. He told FBI agents that he had been harassed and that he had been involved in his own online harassment, using angry, racist, misogynistic, hateful rhetoric.
“There are many warning signs that we know from research to be predictors of violence,” she said. “He was obviously a young man in need of serious intervention.
It is unclear whether any agency, even the FBI, had enough information on its own to intervene successfully to stop Achison. The family claims that the collective failure to share information and connect the dots has led to missed opportunities.
Robles, Latin’s family lawyer, summed it up as follows: “The FBI has failed to conduct an investigation, which is expected to be conducted by a federal law enforcement agency. The school district knew there was a potential threat, and they chose to ignore it. And the police department, when they said that …
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