The U.S. Attorney in the Abdo case, Robert Pitman, compared the AWOL soldier's plot to mass murders in 2012 by two other American men: shootings "at a movie theatre near Denver and a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. 'In the wake of the tragic events in Colorado and Wisconsin, this is yet another reminder that there are those among us who would use or plan to use violence to advance their twisted agenda,' Pitman said."