I like to talk about free will in events like these, because as it stands, we put ourself through more suffering than we aught to in times like this. I read an interesting article which had a unique, comforting notion about how our world actually works, and how people should deal with tragedies like this.
In a nutshell, we don't have free will, and because of that, our behavior is basically the result of our current configuration of atoms in our brain. That's literally nothing we have individual control over. So what did the article writer have to say about tragedies like this? Well, let's analyze how people deal with two types of tragedies. In the first example, we have the "Madsen" type events, where people close to this poor woman will probably suffer some degree of mental anguish from thinking about this. How something so evil could even exist. In worst case, it'll haunt their lives basically.
But let's say it was a bear attack. The poor woman was simply hiking on a mountain, and a bear got spooked and killed her. The article writer suggested that while the family definitely would suffer, it's less likely they'll be haunted by lifelong thoughts of bears and suffer because of that. Because right now people believe "bears will be bears", and bears obviously kill if spooked or provoked. You can't blame it for being a bear since it's "just an animal", basically. It's not exactly an uncommon thing to believe.
But here's where things get fuzzy when you introduce free will, or rather take it away. In a very real and physical sense, there's no difference between Madsen and the bear. Both are literally products of their circumstances, and both killed because of how their brains were configured in that moment. There was no choice involved in either case. Yet, somehow, we put more blame on a human committing a horrible act than a bear even though that makes no sense in this context. The article writer suggested that because of this, we put ourselves through more suffering than we need to.
I thought that was thought-provoking. Maybe in the future horrific tragedies like this will have the same emotional impact as a car accident, simply because people believe there's no difference.