Forensic psychologist shares insight on Austin shooting suspect

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The suspect in the deadly shooting that killed three people in a north Austin parking lot Monday had a history of mental health issues and crimes involving physical assault, police said.

Ethan Nieneker, 32, was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder and first-degree felony murder. APD identified the victims as 24-year-old Hector Leopoldo Martinez Machuca, 65-year-old Adam Chow and his 4-year-old granddaughter. 

“I can say that as far as the victims he chose, those were random, but this man had some serious issues, and I think about the systems that failed,” Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a Tuesday press event. 

Dr. Daphny Dominguez Ainslie, an Austin psychologist who conducts forensic evaluations, said that after events like this, practitioners will examine a person’s behavioral history to see what may have led to the incident. 

“The challenge is that we go back and look at that, so these things are not as easy to predict,” Ainslie said. “Myself and a lot of other people are researching, thinking about, and working on trying to understand this better.”

One of the challenges is that the mental health profiles of people who commit mass shootings vary considerably. Further, she said, having mental health issues is not predictive of engaging in violence. 

“Someone who is experiencing a mental health problem, whether it’s more chronic or short-term, I would say most people who experience mental health problems do not carry out acts such as this,” she said. 

Ainslie advised paying attention to sudden, profound personality changes in people you know and helping connect them to resources.

“Typically, you would see a shift in the type of posts, for example, or the type of language that someone might be using,” she said. “As soon as there is a shift in the language or the tone, that would be something to act on at that time.”