The “lonely wolf” is a figure of speech often used in the media. It claims that some violent event was caused by a single, wicked person, so as the be recognized as a freak unavoidable event, like a hurricane. After a few days of the “lonely wolf” story, police will arrest some 30 other individuals connected to the attack, and the entire story will go into oblivion, since there will be no updates on it after that point.