Secret Service report points to rising ‘incel’ threats

A new Secret Service report focuses on the rise of terrorist threats toward women from males who refer to themselves as “incels.” 

In a 26-page report published Tuesday, the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NATC) focuses on recent incidents involving incel-fueled attacks on women, including a 2018 shooting in Tallahassee, Fla., by a man who killed two women and wounded four others at a yoga class, according to CNN.

The term “incel” is used to describe “men who feel unable to obtain romantic or sexual relationships with women, to which they feel entitled to,” according to the report. 

The NATC report stated that the Florida shooter, Scott Beierle, 40, who shot and killed himself at the scene, penned a 70,000-word revenge fantasy letter about a serial killer, CBS News reported.  

“During his teen years, the attacker was accused of stalking his classmates, and he wrote stories that centered around violent themes,” NATC lead research specialist Steve Driscoll told the media on Thursday. 

“One of those stories was 81 pages long and involved the protagonist murdering several girls before committing suicide. The female characters in the story that were killed represented the attacker’s actual classmates from his high school, but he slightly changed the names in his writing.” 

The report also said that Beierle was motivated to carry out his attack due to his inability to carry out relationships with women, adding that on the day of the shooting Beierle uploaded a song titled “F— ‘Em All” detailing his frustration with personal failures in his life. 

Beierle also left a note before he plotted the attack, according to CBS News, with one note reading, “If I can’t find one decent female to live with, I will find many indecent females to die with.” 

The NATC report also noted recent incidents of incel-linked terrorism including the case of Roy Den Hollander, a self-described “anti-feminist” attorney who killed the son and wounded the husband of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in July 2020. 

The report concluded that “there is no one profile of an individual who plans or executes an act of targeted violence” but that investigators must consider potential targets when seeking to thwart attacks, as suspects routinely “explore multiple targets during the planning process, before making their final selection.” 

The Secret Service added that behavioral threat assessment can be developed at workplaces, college campuses, state and local police institutions, CBS News noted.