Social media, manifesto of San Diego mosque shooters rooted in white nationalism

The gunmen who killed three individuals on the San Diego Islamic Center left behind a 75-page doc that preached hate, anti-Islam and antisemitism and promoted violence and chaos, legislation enforcement sources accustomed to the investigation advised The Times.

The manifesto was titled “The New Crusade: Sons of Tarrant” and made reference to Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 individuals and injured 89 extra in an assault on a mosque and an Islamic heart in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, in accordance with the sources. The FBI confirmed Tuesday that it’s analyzing a manifesto, however didn’t confirm the one circulating on-line that purports to be the attackers’ writings.

The Times has reviewed these writings, which espoused hate towards Muslims, Jews, Black individuals and Latinos and the LGBTQ+ group. The Times additionally recognized social media accounts believed for use by one of the shooters that idolized college shootings, the white nationalism motion and neo-Nazi terrorism and have been flushed with memes from the web far-right extremist group.

Investigators try to find out a motive for the Monday assault, which they’ve labeled as a possible hate crime. They have been interviewing household and associates of the suspects, who died of self-inflicted wounds as police closed on them, and investigating their digital footprint.

Authorities have recognized the deceased shooters as Cain Lee Clark, 17, and Caleb Liam Vazquez, 18.

The attackers opened fireplace on the heart Monday about 11:30 am, authorities stated. During a information convention Tuesday, authorities described a safety guard there as a hero who engaged the shooters in a gun battle earlier than he was killed. The attackers entered a constructing however have been drawn exterior after they noticed two males in the parking zone, killing them.

One of the attackers’ weapons had hate speech written on it, legislation enforcement sources advised The Times, and anti-Islamic writings have been discovered in a car.

Earlier in the morning, police stated, one of the suspects’ mom frankly referred to as authorities to say her son had left a suicide word and that weapons have been lacking. She advised them her son left with a companion sporting camouflage outfits. Officers have been interviewing her when the primary studies of the energetic capturing occurred.

The Times discovered social media accounts beneath the usernames Clark recognized as his, and people linked to accounts exhibiting college shootings as video video games, and a dozen profile images that present the person dressed in camouflage and a grimacing cranium masks earlier than a Confederate flag, sporting emblems related to Nazism. In a picture uploaded in April, the masked writer exhibits the e-book “Siege,” a set of essays by a neo-Nazi militant who advocated “lone wolf” terrorism in the trigger of white revolution.

These accounts on TikTok, SnapChat and Telegram amassed a number of hundred followers with out indicators of having been censored. The Times couldn’t authenticate that Clark was the creator, however the photographs, dates and content material aligned with the manifesto in addition to his private life.

In one, he flashes the “OK” hand image that, due to 4Chan, turned linked to the white nationalist motion.

Another is the “Postcard Dude,” a online game character who commits mass homicide in a fictional small city.

Yet in one other profile photograph, a youthful Clark smiles straight right into a mirror, with a computer-generated blond wig earlier than the mythic Aryan world of Agartha — a well-liked neo-Nazi meme.

The social media posts are thick with references to extremist social media and far-right influencers. The phrase “groyper,” used in one of the account names, is a deal with utilized by followers of Nick Fuentes, whose far-right political discourse has infected a era of younger male followers, together with those that attended the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., who killed three.

One of the Telegram channels carried a thread on “friendship” that included photographs from the film “Zero Day,” a fictional telling of the teenagers concerned in the 2019 Columbine college bloodbath.

“Hey man, why did you include zero day…,” a follower requested.

“I like the movie,” the writer replied.

Mark Remily, FBI particular agent in cost of the San Diego workplace, stated the manifesto outlined “religious and racial beliefs about how the world they envision should look like.”

“These suspects did not discriminate on who they hated,” Remily stated.

But officers did not present any particulars concerning the writings or ideology, including that they have been nonetheless going by way of digital units and analyzing the suspects’ on-line presence to find out how they have been radicalized on-line. Remily confirmed that the pair met on-line.

In the writings reviewed by The Times, Vasquez advocates for the destruction of the political system and “all out race war for the purpose of societal collapse.” Clark describes himself as a “Christian EcoFascist.” An Anti-Defamation League evaluation famous the writings closely reference the great replacement theory —the assumption that white individuals are being changed by nonwhite immigrants.

The pair portrayed themselves as constructing on the work of a number of mass killers, from Tarrant to the Buffalo grocery store attacker to the Chabad of Poway assailant.

They additionally applauded Elliot Rodgerthe 22-year-old who in 2014 killed six individuals in Isla Vista, Calif., and left behind his personal manifesto that advocated for the incel motion.

Brian Levin, chair of California’s Commission on Hate, stated the assault might replicate a contagion spreading amongst extremist youths.

Levin, a former New York police officer who based Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Extremism, stated, like their predecessors, the shooters are utilizing writings — and probably video — to get their message out.

“They reference Tarrant and several other extremist killers, and it seems they are continuing the chain of manifestos with respect to young Nazis feeding on the manifestos of previous killers,” he stated. “For hard-right accelerationists, like these… this amalgam of hatreds against those accused of invading and perverting society, justify not only violence upon those particular groups and failed corrupt politicians, but more broadly a civil war leading to the destruction of society itself.”

What makes these sorts of extremists so harmful after they select to behave, Levin stated, is that their record of targets is so expansive that it may well “make the most hated targets somewhat interchangeable based not only on animus, but opportunity.”

As half of the investigation, federal officers have executed three search warrants, which resulted in the invention of greater than 30 firearms and a crossbow at two of the areas, Remily stated.

Officials seized 30 weapons, together with a number of pistols, rifles and shotguns, and ammunition, tactical gear, in addition to electronics, he stated.

According to legislation enforcement sources, the FBI is investigating a livestream feed of the assault or the aftermath from inside a BMW that captures the suspects in fight outfits that embody Nazi symbols with weapons seen. At least one gore web site that promotes demise movies had a video from the pair, in accordance with the ADL.

The Times has not been capable of confirm the sourcing of video circulating on-line of the lethal assault and eventual suicide contained in the BMW. But the obtainable imagery exhibits the teenagers contained in the BMW X1 as they drove in the assault on the road exterior the Islamic Center, capturing their weapons a number of instances and coming into a constructing whereas carrying at the least one rifle. The video concludes with their deaths contained in the car.