I don’t know if he was beaten down over a long time or not, just can’t imagine someone calming kneeling there and reading a statement, then having their head cut off short of being shown pictures of his family and told ‘either you do this, or we kill them all.’
I’d hope that law enforcement is closely looking at images of people who hung out in the area of the murdered victim’s families as I bet that near each of them is a terrorist cell ready to launch an attack.
The parents of our two slain journalists have been remarkably tear-free and photogenic discussing their beheaded sons.
Yet another possibility.