Nearly 400 state troopers and investigators, with agents from the ATF and FBI, have worked on the case.

Dubbed Operation Prevail, the investigation has explored every aspect of Cho’s life, including mental health issues and his school records. Authorities have tracked down his credit card purchases of guns and ammunition and any possible connections to his victims. Armed with subpoenas, they painstakingly examined all of the computer accounts of Cho and his victims.

ATF agents have assembled a sketch of Cho that they say fits the “Collector of Injustice” profile. “It is always someone else’s fault, and the world is out to get them,” Bart McEntire, the resident agent in charge of the ATF’s Roanoke office, said in describing people who fit the profile. Eventually, the person’s compilation of wrongs becomes overloaded, and he lashes out violently to right them and get even with those who he believes have caused him misfortune and ridicule.

Cho, 23, of Centreville, Virginia, whose family was religious and had sought help for him from a Woodbridge church, repeatedly made religious references. He said that he had been “crucified” and that, as with Jesus, his actions would set people free. He called himself a “martyr” who would “sacrifice” his life. He wrote that he would go down in history as the “Jesus Christ of the Weak and Defenceless”. He thought his actions would inspire others to fight back and get even.

Among the writings, Cho included three pictures of himself, which investigators think show how his self-image progressed. In the first picture, he is smiling. In the next, his arms are outstretched like Jesus’s on the cross. And in the third, his arms are crossed as if he is lying dead in a coffin, agents said.

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