Context Is All

"Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did" -- a law enforcement official explains Robert Aaron Long's decision to kill 8 people in a strange manner pic.twitter.com/u0zFcqjbNK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2021

This is, as the kids say, "blowing up on Twitter."

According to a law enforcement officer, the shooter insists it wasn't a racially motivated crime, but that he was tired of the temptation these women caused him. Also: "Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did." https://t.co/G8xuukEERT

— Kristen Meinzer (@kristenmeinzer) March 17, 2021

when Black people have "bad days" they are killed by police and then exposed on national media for smoking a joint once in middle school https://t.co/FX5aMdAnjt

— manny (@mannyfidel) March 17, 2021

Articulating this level of empathy and understanding of a killer’s motives and twisted logic is often a powerfully effective interview technique when you’re seeking a confession, but it’s rare to see it spill into the police press conference after the confession is obtained. https://t.co/y0IFOlDUqZ

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 17, 2021

this framing is wild. https://t.co/bQugmdxHVl

— deray (@deray) March 17, 2021

Georgia Sheriff on Jeffrey Dahmer: Look, everybody has to eat. And this is what he did.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 17, 2021

(I expected JMM to know better.)

If you listen to the clip, even the bit cut out of the entire press conference, it's pretty clear what's being said is a paraphrase of what the suspect said about his motives and his actions.  The officer isn't commenting on the suspect's "bad day," he's passing on information about what the suspect said about "why he did it" (which is always, rather ludicrously, the question the media always wants answered first).  Why is "motive" a ludicrous question, you ask. 

Taking a murderer’s self-interested justification for why he acted at face value is premature. Assessing motive will require interviewing people who knew him, reviewing his communications/social media posts, and analyzing his patterns of behavior before he committed the crime.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 17, 2021

Reportedly the suspect also said his actions were not "racially motivated."  He will find his opinion is not binding on the prosecution, or on the courts.  Neither are the comments passed on by the sheriff's department to the press.