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In the weeks leading up to and including New Year’s Day 2025, America was roiled by three spectacular domestic attacks perpetrated by American-born lone actors: The murder of a health care executive in New York City in December, the vehicular assault on New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans that killed 14 people and wounded over 35 others, and the suicide and truck explosion in front of Trump Tower in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.
While each of these attacks was unique, they do share some common characteristics. I teach a class on terrorism and public policy, and these cases fit patterns that we examine every semester.
From the available evidence, it seems that all three perpetrators experienced personal crises that put them on a path to radicalization and action. It appears that all three acts were motivated by an ideological or political cause or a desire to express grievances of some sort.
The alleged assassin of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was not a customer of that company and did not know Thompson, but his targeting of a health care executive was deliberate. In his writings, he railed against the health care industry and wealthy executives. The CEO was a symbolic target, as are many victims of terrorist attacks. The killer might be a cult hero on social media, but he meets the definition of a domestic terrorist.
Using Department of Homeland Security categories, the CEO killer could be considered a domestic violent extremist and the New Orleans attacker, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, was a homegrown violent extremist (also known as a “homegrown jihadist”). As for the Las Vegas bomber (who suffered from PTSD), he did articulate a list of grievances, but it remains unclear whether he was an ideologically motivated extremist.
Both the New Orleans and Las Vegas lone actors had extensive military experience with deployments to Afghanistan, the latter an active-duty Army Green Beret. According to the University of Maryland’s Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, about 45 people with military backgrounds commit extremist or mass casualty crimes in the United States each year, a jump from about seven per year from 1990 to 2010.
The New Orleans attacker used a weapon of choice for lone-wolf terrorists in the 21st century: the motor vehicle. ISIS encourages would-be jihadists to conduct vehicle ramming attacks and provides instruction in its online platforms.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, in a 2012 warning, noted that vehicle ramming attacks “could be used to target locations where large numbers of people congregate, including sporting events, entertainment venues, or shopping centers. Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a Homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience.”
Vehicular attacks are not the exclusive province of jihadists. Two infamous U.S. examples were perpetrated by far-right domestic violent extremists: Charlottesville, Virginia (2017), where a neo-Nazi drove into a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing Heather Hyer and injuring 35 others; and the 2021 Waukesha, Wisconsin, attack where the perpetrator, a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” with a history of violence, drove his SUV into a Christmas parade, killing six and injuring 62.
Terrorists seek to spread their message and instill fear by attacking symbolic targets and public venues and events. In addition to greater vigilance by law enforcement and the hardening of soft targets, it is incumbent on all of us to report suspicious activity and maintain situational awareness. As the saying goes, “If you see something, say something.”•
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Atlas, a political scientist, is a senior lecturer at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Indianapolis. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Indiana University. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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