Virginia Beach mass shooting gunman was ‘motivated by perceived workplace grievances,’ FBI says

Virginia Beach — The longtime city engineer who shot and killed 12 people before being fatally wounded by police was “motivated by perceived workplace grievances, which he fixated on for years,“ according to a report from the FBI released Wednesday.

It was the first time a government agency has identified a motive for why DeWayne Craddock, 40, opened fire on his coworkers at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center in 2019 after roughly nine years on the job.

The findings and investigation from the bureau bolster much of The Virginian-Pilot’s reporting in the months after the shooting. In December of that year, the Pilot reported that Craddock’s actions and words leading up to the shooting left a fairly clear road map: he was isolating, paranoid and repeatedly facing workplace issues despite also feeling underpaid.

“The shooter’s inflated sense of self-importance contributed to this conflict and led him to believe he was unjustly and repeatedly criticized and slighted,” the FBI wrote in a news release. “Violence was viewed by the shooter as a way to reconcile this conflict and restore his perverted view of justice.”

The report from the FBI — which states that while only the shooter knew the real reason why he did this, the bureau is confident in its assessment — also stands in sharp contrast to the findings of police and a Chicago firm tasked with investigating the shooting.

Reports from the police included some of the details in the FBI’s release, including Craddock’s mental health issues or problems at work, but city and police officials always stopped short of identifying a motive, to the frustration of several victims’ families.

In March, as the police department was set to release its final report into the shooting, City Manager Patrick Duhaney wrote in a letter to victims’ families that, despite a methodical investigation, “no evidence was found that shed light on the shooter’s motivations.”

“We know this is one of the most difficult findings to accept and we know you may still have questions,” he wrote.

After seeing the FBI’s report, Jason Nixon, whose wife, Kate, was killed in the shooting, said he felt vindicated after pushing for much of this information to be released over the last two years.

“I felt like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” he said over the phone. “I’ve been fighting so much. I’ve been banging my head against the wall.”

Linda Kuehn, a Virginia Beach police spokeswoman, said the department does not have behavioral specialists, which is why it asked for the FBI’s assistance in the investigation and why the findings might differ. She said the FBI’s expertise in this area and what it examined is different than what the city’s police department does.

When asked if he agrees with the FBI’s listed motive, Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer said he can’t get into the head of the shooter and that the tragedy could not have been prevented.

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But he said he’s 100% confident in the city’s police department and said that they reacted in the most “heroic and noble way” possible to minimize the carnage that could have happened that day.

The FBI conducted a wide range of evidence, including witness interviews and forensics data.

The bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit made several conclusions about Craddock’s motivations.

[ Isolation, paranoia and a $3,027 mistake: A Virginia Beach engineer’s path to mass murder ]

FBI officials said his grievances started as early as 2014, and they continued until the shooting. Two days before the shooting, Craddock faced a crisis at work and had even considered using his own money to make the problem go away. On the morning of the tragedy, Craddock emailed his bosses to put in his two weeks’ notice but otherwise went about his day as an engineer often would, visiting different job sites.

The shooter suffered from mental health stressors that contributed to his motivation for the attack but can not solely explain it, according to the FBI. His ex-wife, whom he separated from in 2016, told police that he was “crazy” and “schizophrenic.

The FBI also noted that no one “was in a position to see the confluence of behaviors that may have forewarned the attack.”

Lyndon German, frederick.german@virginiamedia.com