President “body bags”?
by Tom Sullivan
Dayton, Ohio night skyline.
File under Make America Grieve Again.
Woke up looking for more details of the El Paso, Texas shooting on Saturday. Instead found a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. CNN reports the suspect (deceased) wore body armor. Less than 14 hours separate the two. Only a single shooter is suspected in each case. This post will just summarize what I’m able to find this morning.
Twenty known dead, 26 injured in El Paso after a white male from the Dallas suburbs, 21, wearing yellow-tinted tactical glasses and shooting muffs opened fire with an AK-style rifle (7.62×39mm) at a crowded WalMart. Authorities are investigating the event as domestic terrorism. Police are “reasonably confident” the shooter posted a 2,300-word manifesto “filled with white nationalist language and racist hatred toward immigrants and Latinos” on a right-wing fringe message board, 8chan. NBC reports:
Terrorism experts warn that nothing should be taken at face value in the propaganda material left behind by hate crime suspects, which aim to provide fodder for social media pickup and mainstream media coverage.
The screed posted to the anonymous extremist message board railed against immigrants in Texas and pushed talking points about preserving European identity in America.
How many actual victims is in doubt because some El Paso victims fearing immigration authorities may have avoided hospital treatment.
CNN reports that local officials in El Paso believe some mass shooting victims didn’t seek medical treatment because of their immigration status. America is in dire shape. pic.twitter.com/E68hiCN5H2— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 3, 2019
Nine known dead in Dayton, plus the alleged shooter, 16 taken to hospitals. Eight were treated and released. “Most of us can’t get to our cars because there are bodies scattered all over across the street from our cars,” an eyewitness told Dayton’s WKEF last night.
An unconfirmed eyewitness account describes the Dayton shooter as a “white man in all black with an [AR-15-style assault rifle]” who “just opened fire for 30 seconds straight, killing or injuring 10-20 people” outside an Oregon district bar. Dayton’s mayor Nan Whaley reports in a press conference that the alleged shooter carried a .223 rifle, wore body armor and carried additional magazines (7:15 a.m. EDT). The suspect and possible motive have not been identified. Police killed the gunman in less than a minute after the firing began.
Honestly we’d be hearing calls for declaring a national state of emergency— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 4, 2019
Beto O’Rourke in El Paso called out the president for inspiring violence:
President Trump's racism does not just offend our sensibilities; it fundamentally changes the character of this country. And it leads to violence. pic.twitter.com/SbuxGneFnh— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 4, 2019
USA Today displays this headline: El Paso, Dayton make 251 mass shootings in the US in 216 days, more shootings than days in the year. Others believe Dayton is 250, but at this point it is hard to keep count.
The president who takes credit for all things good and no things bad likes inventing nasty nicknames almost as much as he enjoys maligning non-whites, immigrants, and political opponents. How about “President body bags”?