Following the tragic terror attack in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, the news media has focused on various characteristics of suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. The media’s gaze has landed on his country of origin, Uzbekistan; the fact he came to the United States on a “diversity visa”; a note in his car referencing allegiance to the Islamic State; and his interest in public displays of religious devotion, which were said not to be matched by his own religious training or curiosity. On Fox News, retired Green Beret Michael Waltz, who owns a defense contractor operating in Kabul, even used the incident as proof of the need to go “on the offense” in Afghanistan — a country that is not, in fact, Uzbekistan.

This Fox "expert" who's talking about "going on the offense" against terror in Afghanistan...owns a defense contractor working in....Kabul pic.twitter.com/MyF9X9lzlR — Avi Asher-Schapiro (@AASchapiro) October 31, 2017

But what isn’t being asked by most commentators is the question that pops up after so many other mass shootings and killings: What about his mental health? Of course, the question of a shooter’s mental health is itself a sensitive matter, and loose speculation is unhelpful. But it’s notable that if a shooter is Muslim, the question seems less likely to be asked at all — even if the attacker, in this case, emerges from a truck waving a BB gun and paintball gun, an act that displays a dubious tethering to reality. For Stephen Paddock, who shot dead 58 people and injured hundreds of others in Las Vegas, the focus quickly moved to his mental health. Media interviews with his girlfriend probed the fact that he exhibited strange behaviors, such as lying in bed at night and moaning and screaming. Medical analysts debated in op-eds whether his mental health played a role. Investigators eventually came to the conclusion that Paddock had an undiagnosed mental health condition. James Alex Fields Jr., who slammed his car into antiracist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, also had his mental health examined. One of his teachers described to the media how he had been taking antipsychotic medications. Unsealed court documents from the self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof’s case caught the media’s eye when they revealed that a local forensic psychiatrist found that he showed signs of various disorders, including schizoid personality disorder and depression. Jared Lee Loughner, who shot former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was used as an example of a mentally ill person who did not get help in time. A lengthy TIME article quoted a Harvard psychiatrist who said the Laughner case was an example of the “obvious need for more capacity in the mental-health system.” Fields, Paddock, Roof, and Loughner all share a quality that Saipov doesn’t — they’re not Muslim, and they’re white. Humanizing attackers in this way, even as their crimes are reviled, has been a cornerstone of criminal justice for generations. The field of criminal psychology was developed in the 20th century with the intent of understanding what makes criminals into the people they are so that police can predict and track crimes, and social policymakers can prevent them. Sometimes the mental health of Muslim shooters does come under scrutiny. When Omar Mateen rampaged through the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, discussion focused on whether he was tortured over his sexuality, with his wife calling his stability into question.

Photo: St. Charles County, Mo. Department of Corrections/KMOV/AP