What constitutes a mass shooting? That depends on whom you ask
Four mass shootings took place in the Las Vegas Valley this year, according to the ShootingTracker.com website, but you've probably never heard them described that way. That's because definitions tend to vary by agency, jurisdiction, social media and more.
For instance, the ShootingTracker.com site, whose statistics have been widely reported in the news or shared on social media, lists the Sept. 5 shooting death of 19-year-old Geovany Garcia among 12 other mass shootings over the last three years.
Garcia was found dead in a vehicle near the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Desert Inn Road at about 2:40 a.m. Three others were shot alongside Garcia as they drove away from a brawl at a nearby park, and they were all expected to survive.
Whether Garcia's homicide counts as a mass shooting depends on whom you ask.
Mass Shooting Tracker, part of the ShootingTracker.com site, doesn't spell out what a mass shooting is. Its sister site, the Gun Violence Archive, defines it as an event in which four people, not including the shooter, are shot and/or killed in a single event at the same general time and location.
But Mass Shooting Tracker often includes the shooter in the total number of people who are shot or killed. The list started as a Reddit group, and users update the tracker using media reports. The data also include instances of domestic violence and those that are gang- or drug-related.
In creating a map of the Nevada events included on the site, the Review-Journal found numerous errors and events that weren't included but seem to match the site's criteria for mass shootings. If you've seen on social media that states there have been more than 300 mass shootings in 2015, that post is referencing this data.
Definition debate
How "mass shooting" is defined is often a matter of politics.
Researcher John Lott wrote in July that lumping drug gang violence with active shooter scenarios doesn't make sense. Lott is a frequent guest on Fox News and wrote the book "More Guns, Less Crime."
"The key is that the causes and solutions to drug gang violence are dramatically different than for the vast majority of mass public shootings,where attacks are designed to kill or wound as many people as possible," Lott said.
Those who advocate for a broader definition seem to swing the other way.
Brock Weller, one of the Redditors who began the Mass Shooting Tracker told the activist journalism organization the Trace that his goal was to help "lessen the senseless death and tragedy by spurring action."
"The goal is to stop minimizing these acts of violence," Weller told the Trace in October. "Those gunshot victims are still just as shot and will never be the same."
But there's even disagreement among those who favor reforming gun policies.
The national advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety does its own research and calls a mass shooting an event in which four or more are killed.
Everytown research director Ted Elkhorn told the Review-Journal that all gun violence incidents deserve scrutiny, but the goal should be to "unpack the why and the how."
The insight the data provides is the most important part, Elkhorn said, pointing to Everytown's finding that more than half of the mass shootings they track are domestic violence events.
And he has a theory about the amount of attention being paid to the Mass Shooting Tracker's data recently.
"There's a tendency in the media to like larger, sensational numbers," he said.
Law enforcement views
Police departments view things differently.
Bridget Pappas, FBI spokeswoman for Las Vegas, declined to answer questions from the Review-Journal about the agency's definitions of "mass shooting," "mass murder" and "active shooter incidents" and deferred to a 2014 FBI study on active shooters found on its website.
While the report specifies that it's not a study of mass shootings, it does offer a couple helpful definitions: a mass killing is an incident in which three or more people are killed. An active shooter incident is when "an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area," according to the report.
Valley police departments told the Review-Journal their policies don't define mass shootings either.
Metro spokesman Officer Larry Hadfield said when he hears "mass shooting" he thinks of someone "randomly, indiscriminately killing people."
"I think you have to look at what motivated it," he said, adding that he thinks of mass shooters as having an ideological bent.
North Las Vegas police seemingly agree.
"I think of it almost along the lines of terrorism," department spokesman Officer Aaron Patty said.
Neither department tracks nonfatal shootings like the Mass Shooting Tracker. Shootings are either logged as homicides or as assault and battery.
Hadfield said Metro doesn't keep a "shooting log."
"We don't have any real way to track that as far as numbers," Patty said.
Both officers said domestic violence and gang shootings shouldn't count either.
"In a situation where this person knows that person … I would think that's different," Patty said.
Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Trooper Loy Hixson said mass shooting just signifies multiple victims.
"As to how many, (it) can vary. Some may think of that number being as low as three and going up," he said.
Active shooters
While valley police departments may not track what some call mass shootings, they are all concerned with active shooters.
When asked when the last mass shooting was, both officers talked about active shooter incidents — Hadfield said the murder of Las Vegas police officers Igor Soldon and Alyn Beck and civilian Joseph Wilcox last summer was a mass shooting. Patty mentioned a 2010 shooting in the lobby of the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse in which one person was killed and one federal law enforcement officer was killed.
Henderson police use the term "active assailant," department spokeswoman Michelle French said.
"An active assailant incident occurs when one or more persons are randomly or systematically involved in the act of using deadly force on others, and it appears based on available intelligence that the suspects will not stop their aggressive hostile actions without immediate and direct law enforcement intervention," she said in an email.
The most infamous mass shootings — from the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting in which 32 people were killed to the 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 27 were killed — would be considered active shooter events by law enforcement.
Both Hadfield and Patty said the fact that there haven't been many of these kinds of tragedies here is a testament to good training and a good state.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.
NEVADA'S MASS SHOOTINGS
Nevada has had 15 mass shootings in the past three years based on the ShootingTracker.com broad definition of “mass shooting,” which includes three or more individuals wounded. The FBI definition of “mass killing” includes three or more killed.
Las Vegas
5500 block of Cotton St., near Stewart Avenue and N. Christy Lane
Police said Manuel Mata III shot and killed his girlfriend Maria Flores, 43, and her daughter Elizabeth Gomez, 17. A 4-year-old girl was also wounded before Mata tried to commit suicide and shot himself. 2 killed
1300 block of W. Bartlett Ave., near N. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Ave.
Three adults and an 11-year-old child were wounded in a gang-related drive-by shooting as they were walking to the front door of their home.
3645 Las Vegas Blvd South
Police said Benjamin Frazier, 41, shot and killed Kenneth Brown, 40, during an altercation outside Drai's nightclub at Bally's Las Vegas in which Frazier wounded two security guards with his gun. Brown tackled Frazier and they wrestled for the gun. 1 killed
953 E. Sahara Ave., near Maryland Parkway
Peter Andrade, 26, wounded several people at a wedding reception at El Palacio Del Sol, a banquet hall at East Sahara Ave. near Maryland Parkway. Most injuries were serious, but not life-threatening, with the exception of one man who was shot 10 times and transported to UMC in critical condition.
CiCi's Pizza, N. Nellis Boulevard and Stewart Ave.
Las Vegas police officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were ambushed and gunned down while eating lunch by Jerad, 31, and Amanda Miller, 22. Amanda then killed Joseph Wilcox in a Wal-Mart store, then killed herself as her husband Jerad lay dying from being shot by police. 5 killed, including the 2 shooters
3400 Rancho Drive and Cheyenne Ave.
Issachar Akaka, 18, was killed and three others were wounded when they were shot in their vehicle as they left a fight at a house party. 1 killed
7. Aug. 17, 2014
Elks Lodge, 902 W. Owens Ave.
Four people, in two cars, were shot in the parking lot of Elks Lodge near Owens Avenue and H Street. The wounds were not life-threatening.
2251 S. Fort Apache Road, near Sahara Avenue
In an apartment complex, Blake Widmar, 21, shot and killed his wife Veronica Caldwell, 33, stepdaughter Yvonne Rose Reyes, 18, and the stepdaughter's boyfriend, Cory Justin Childers, 21, before shooting himself. 4 killed
Hollywood Boulevard and East Desert Inn Road
Geovany Garcia, 19, was killed and three others were wounded after an early morning brawl at a park in the 5000 block of Hollywood Boulevard led to gunfire. 1 killed
Jackson Ave. and B St.
DeAndre Leggett, 38, Charlita Lashunda Carroll, 35, and Morty Cornell Young, 37, were gunned down in an apartment. Police said their deaths were likely related to a drug robbery. 3 killed
1424 Lawry Ave.
Three people were shot at a home in the central valley and were treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
North Las Vegas
2100 block of Englestad St., near West Lake Mead Boulevard and Revere St.
Four men were wounded in a shooting. Those injured did not require ambulances, but drove themselves or had family members take them to area hospitals.
Recent mass shootings in Northern Nevada
2275 18th St., Sparks
Sparks Middle School teacher Michael Landsberry, 45, was killed and two others were wounded when Jose Reyes, 12, opened fire with a handgun at school. Reyes killed himself before police arrived. 2 killed, including the shooter.
1155 Mill St., Reno
Alan Oliver Frazier, 51, gunned down Dr. Garo Gholdoian, 46, at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno. Two others were wounded, and Frazier killed himself before police arrived. 2 killed, including the shooter.
Fernley, Lyon County
Jeremiah Bean fatally shot four people — Robert and Dorothy Pape, both 64; Angie Duff, 67; and Lester Lieber, 69 — and, alongside Interstate 80, Eliazar Graham, 52. 5 killed
