In January 2025, a 17-year-old opened fire in his school cafeteria, killing a teenage girl before turning the gun on himself. In the aftermath, Matt Kriner faces a different kind of investigation. His job is to dig through the suspect's vast digital footprint, a record rife with racist and violent rhetoric, and piece together not just what happened, but why. And what it might take to prevent it from happening again.

Matt Kriner has a background in intelligence analysis and is the Executive Director Institute for Countering Digital Extremism (ICDE), which he co-founded to provide guidance to government agencies and tech companies helping prevent online radicalization and offline extremist harms. Matt is the expert witness for several key legal cases against accelerationist perpetrators in both the U.S. and Canada, and his insights may be found in a variety of outlets, including the PBS Documentary The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram.

A man pulls a gun on his wife during an argument and refuses to surrender when law enforcement arrives. Lieutenant Ryan takes the scene and what follows is a tense, five-hour negotiation. As Ryan works to bring the situation to a safe resolution, the case becomes a window into how suspects behave in these moments and what it takes to reach them.

Lieutenant Ryan has worked in law enforcement for 15 years. He started his career as a patrol deputy and later moved into investigations as a detective, working in a unit that handled Crimes Against Children, including complex and sensitive cases involving abuse and exploitation.

After promoting through the ranks, Ryan has served in leadership roles in patrol services, special investigations, and spent several years in the Training Division, where he helped build his agency’s training academy and shape the next generation of officers. He also served for six years on his agency’s Crisis Negotiations Team, eventually becoming the team leader.

Ryan comes from a law enforcement family—his father and uncle both wore the badge before him, with his father serving over 40 years in law enforcement. He’s currently a shift commander on patrol and continues to oversee the field training program in his district.

A young mother, six weeks pregnant, reaches out to Detective Alia after being attacked by her on-again, off-again partner. Alia takes the case and gets to work, determined to get justice for her and her unborn child. But before she can get there, the case takes a turn that is as devastating as it is unexpected.

Detective Alia has 12 years of law enforcement experience with her agency. She spent eight years on patrol, including five as a Field Training Deputy, mentoring and developing new deputies. She then served three years in the Training Division, where she oversaw cadet instruction at the academy and coordinated agency-wide training initiatives. Detective Alia now serves as a Violent Crimes Detective, within the Criminal Investigations Division, where she investigates violent crimes against persons. She has also been a crisis negotiator for the past five years and remains on call 24/7 for hostage and barricaded subject incidents.