I was a LEO for 3 decades & my training tells me that there are FIVE & only FIVE motives for murder: LUST, JEALOUSY, GREED, HATE & SEVERE MENTAL DEFECT.
Based on what little that I now know, there seems to be NO motive of lust, jealousy, greed and/or mental defect, so I'm left with unreasoning hate & disregard for the rights/welfare of other people.
Based on that "diagnosis" of motive, the criminal if convicted, should suffer the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
A PERSONAL ASIDE: Given the numerous recent problems with "lethal injection", my suggestion is that TX return to DEATH BY HANGING & IN the county where the crime occurred.
My "main contact" at BCSO told me Tuesday afternoon that they have NO current/actual knowledge of WHY (for sure) that the criminal went onto the bus & started harassing/assaulting passengers that he didn't know. - LT ______________ said that some of the people, who have "worked the case", wonder if he was under the influence of drugs & "just out to cause trouble".
Sometimes criminals do things that just "don't make sense". - For example, when I was PM at Ft Pickett, I conducted the first interview of a subject who had assaulted 5 people (at random) with a metal softball bat, sending them all in serious condition to the ER.
(I "caught the case" because one of my DoD Police patrols took him into custody on post.)
I was also present when USACIDC agents & VSP detectives "interviewed" the subject & the nearest thing to a "motive" for his acts that he gave the LEOs was, "I wondered what it would be like to beat some people up. So I went and done it."
(The criminal was found guilty of 5 counts of attempted murder & incarcerated for 30 years in the VA prison system.)
Otoh, "shorty" MAY be just like "The Batsman" (as the "VA crazy" called himself) and just "be out for a lark" & "having a good 'ole time" attacking random victims & for no logical reason.
I talked by phone to "my buddy" at the BCSO last night & during the conversation he got around to saying that:
1. The creep was evidently NOT drunk and/or on drugs at the time of the several assaults & the shooting.
2. "We know just as little about this incident & his motive than we did the last time that we talked."
and
3. Then he said, "I think that he's 'just plain NUTS'."