A Secret Service study of 50 workplace attacks that killed 119 people finds grievances drive the violence and warning signs are too often ignored.
The U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center reviewed a decade of workplace violence cases and produced a new prevention report expected to be released Wednesday, NBC News reported.
The findings are aimed at businesses, human resources offices, local law enforcement, and mental health professionals who still miss clear red flags before blood is spilled.
In the 50 incidents under review, 119 people were killed and 128 were injured. Retail and service businesses were hit most often, followed by manufacturing and healthcare facilities.
Lina Alathari, who leads the threat assessment center, said the project was built to answer a blunt set of questions about attackers.
"To look at how can we prevent targeted workplace violence. What is the thinking, behavior and circumstances of workplace attackers?"
Her answer on motive was direct.
"Grievances are always the No. 1 motive that might sort of trigger someone to carry out an attack,"
Sixteen of the attackers were still employed at the sites they targeted. Many others had a direct personal connection to the business. That is not random crime walking in off the street. It is someone with a score to settle and access to the floor.
Most attackers used firearms. Others used knives, explosives, or vehicles. Nearly 25% brought more than one weapon.
More than 40% of the suspects had histories of domestic violence, even when charges never followed. The report treats that pattern as a practical warning, not a side note.
Alathari said prevention has to include people already living with threats at home.
"That includes empowering those who may be experiencing stalking, harassing, threats from romantic partners or other relatives to feel connected enough to come forward and ask for help,"
When co-workers and managers stay silent, the grievance festers. When HR treats a restraining-order problem as private drama, the workplace becomes the next stage.
In one case described in the material, a suspect had been fired, yet badge access remained active. The person walked back in.
That is a security failure with a body count attached. Termination without cutting credentials is not a paperwork glitch. It is an open door.
Common warning signs listed in the report include sudden behavior changes, depression, rising absenteeism, talk about weapons, violent thoughts, and threats against co-workers. None of those require a crystal ball. They require adults willing to act.
The report reaches back to the June 28, 2018, attack on the Capital Gazette offices in Annapolis, Md., where a gunman killed five employees. That massacre is the kind of targeted workplace strike the center is trying to stop before the first shot.
Across the studied cases, more than 75% of attackers eventually stopped causing harm on their own and were arrested at the scene. Nearly half died by suicide. In 14% of the cases, law enforcement ended the violence by killing the suspect.
Those endings come after the killing starts. The point of the study is to move the intervention earlier, while a grievance is still a personnel file, not a crime scene.
The Secret Service has not waited on the formal release. Last year the agency led 400 training sessions on preventing mass violence for roughly 50,000 participants nationwide.
Alathari framed the stakes without soft edges.
"There are always opportunities for intervention, and what I can tell you is that the cost of inaction can be deadly,"
She also tied the new work to the center’s broader mission.
"Which is why we launched this initiative,"
Businesses that shrug off threats, keep dead badges alive, or bury domestic-violence red flags are choosing delay. Delay is not neutral. The Secret Service’s own numbers show what delay buys.
Workplaces are not therapy circles. They are places where people clock in expecting to clock out alive, and managers who ignore a grievance, a threat, or a live access card are gambling with other people’s lives.
