Van Zandt: 'Lone wolf' attacks hardest to avert

>>> the aurora police are saying at least 50 people were hurt or killed in today's shooting, includes the 12 that we have confirmed that are dead. joining me now, former fbi profiler clint van zandt . let me start with something answer ne abc news apparently spoke with james holmes 's mother. his parents live in san diego . all she said was, you have the right person. i need to call the police. i need to fly out to colorado. just hearing that from the mother of james holmes , hearing what you are piecing together. that's a piece of the puzzle, i assume. what does that tell you?

>> well, if we look at the tea leaves or read between the lines , whatever we want to call it, one might pull from that that the mother may have known there were some issues or challenges with her son. it could be something as simple as she knew he was going to this premiere movie event or it could be something deeper or far more sinister that she knew there were emotional challenges there. we know this was a preplanned event. this guy had to buy a ticket, one would assume in advance. he had to assemble clothing, uniform, helmet, gas mask , get the gas grenade , the weapons. he had to put all of this together. he didn't just fall off a tur p nip truck to do this. is this just the terrible collision between some dark trekky-like person's fantasy world and reality. or is it more sinister? is there a political, religious or other type of motivation other than just someone with emotional challenges.

>> are you surprised that so far it appears james holmes acted alone?

>> no. you know, this is so dramatic. this is so drastic. chuck, you and i have covered stories like virginia tech , ft. ho hood. we looked at the shooting of congresswoman gabrielle giffords . all of these are what the fbi director and others have said is their worst fear, the lone wolf person. whether he or she is an international terrorist or a person with a rich fantasy world and they choose to act out. if someone chooses to commit an act, they do it by themselves, they get no involvement by anyone else , that is the worst possible person to stop, chuck.

>> the other thing about james holmes is no criminal record . you know, nothing in his past so far that's been dug up that suggests he was on the road to something like this so far. does that surprise you?

>> no. again, it doesn't necessarily. again, if you look at the history of mass shootings and the united states the vast majority of these individuals for whatever their final motivation, did not have a significant history in the criminal justice system . what law enforcement needs to find out right now is did he act alone? did anybody else have knowledge of this or any indication he was going to do this and was there or is there a part two to this, chuck? we know he suggested he had explosives in his car and in his apartment. that's why the fbi and atf are being so careful going through this. could there be some explosive device planted somewhere else that's still waiting to go off? that's why i think law enforcement is moving so fast on this one.

>> right. clint van zandt , the analyst we turn to in events like these. we'll check back in. thank you, sir.