Media, Activists Assumed Colorado Shooter Was White, Delete Posts, Pivot When His Identity Revealed

As soon as a shooting was reported at a Boulder, Colorado grocery store, members of the media and activists rushed to insist the shooter must be white and, specifically, a “white supremacist,” before his identity was even released.

When news outlets reported that the suspect had been apprehended, numerous verified Twitter accounts suggested the shooter must be white, as any other race, some claimed, would have been shot at the scene. The suspected shooter was shot at the scene, but in the leg, and was taken into custody. DeadSpin editor Julie DiCaro and USA Today editor Hemal Jhaveri insisted in a conversation that the shooter was a “white man,” with Jhaveri referring to him as “an angry white man.”

Amy Siskind, a feminist activist, said the shooter was “almost certainly a white man” because he was apprehended. Once she learned the race of the suspect, however, she pivoted to suggesting people mourn the victims and not focus on the identity of the killer. Author Meena Harris, niece of Vice President Kamala Harris, posted then deleted a tweet declaring, “Violent white men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country.”

Caleb Hull, a Republican strategist, compiled a list of similar statements from reporters and activists, many of whom have deleted their original tweets once they learned the suspect was not white, but of Arabic descent.

THREAD: Here are all the idiotic leftists who immediately jumped to politicize the tragic Boulder shooting to push their narrative, only for it all to fall apart when it turns out the shooter is muslim…

Deadspin Editor: pic.twitter.com/pcPUgdPas3

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 23, 2021

The suspected shooter, a 21-year-old who will not be named per Daily Wire policy, killed 10 people at a King Soopers grocery store on Monday, including one police officer. While his Arabic name may prompt new assumptions about his motive, members of his family have told The Daily Beast that the suspect suffered from mental illness, was “very anti-social” and paranoid. The suspect’s brother said that in high school, the suspect claimed he was “being chased, someone is behind him, someone is looking for him.”

“When he was having lunch with my sister in a restaurant, he said, ‘People are in the parking lot, they are looking for me.’ She went out, and there was no one. We didn’t know what was going on in his head,” the brother said.

Further, the suspect’s brother said the shooting may not have been political.

“[It was] not at all a political statement, it’s mental illness,” he told The Daily Beast. “The guy used to get bullied a lot in high school, he was like an outgoing kid but after he went to high school and got bullied a lot, he started becoming anti-social.”

The brother also said another sibling and other family members were detained by police and their home was searched.

The suspect was born in Syria but reportedly spent “most of his life in the United States,” Boulder police officials said during a Tuesday press conference.

#BoulderShooting live update 3/23/21 8:30 AM https://t.co/T3yXqQ1TP9

— Boulder Police Dept. (@boulderpolice) March 23, 2021

The suspect’s Facebook profile says he was born in Syria in 1999 and came to the U.S. in 2002. He also posted information rebuking former President Donald Trump and discussed his history as a high school wrestler.

As soon as the shooting was reported, Democrats, including the Biden administration, began hyping gun-control measures once again.

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