When news outlets reported that the suspect of the shooting had been apprehended, many members of the mainstream media, activists and other left-wing figures rushed to suggest that the shooter was White. According to them, if the shooter was any other race, he would have been shot at the scene.
"Extremely tired of people's lives depending on whether a White man with an AR-15 is having a good day or not," wrote Deadspin sports writer and editor Julie DiCaro on Twitter.
"It's always an angry White man. Always," replied USA Today sports editor Hemal Jhaveri.
"And they are always angry about women," answered back DiCaro.
These are just some of the many statements made online when news of the shooting broke out.
But everyone who had been talking about the shooter's race quickly went quiet when news broke out that the accused shooter was Ahmad Al-Issa, a devout Muslim, a naturalized U.S. citizen and the son of Syrian migrants. Al-Issa was reportedly concerned about Islamophobia and was suffering from mental health problems.
Both DiCaro and Jhaveri locked their Twitter accounts in response to the backlash against their assumptions regarding the shooter's race. Others who made similar statements tried to downplay then as well as the identity of the shooter.
"The shooter was taken into custody. In other words, it was almost certainly a white man again. If he were Black or Brown he would be dead," wrote writer and left-wing activist Amy Siskind on her Twitter account on Monday, Mar. 22, a day before law enforcement identified Al-Issa as the main suspect.
"Let's mourn the victims, but not glorify the killer with the attention of having his name widely known," wrote Siskind the next day, when Al-Issa had been apprehended. (Related: Boulder shooter NOT a "White male" but a devout Muslim who frequently posted about "Islamophobia" on social media.)
Kamala Harris' niece also caught blaming White men for the shooting
Meena Harris, the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris, was one of the people who talked online about how the shooter was most likely a White man because he was taken into custody alive.
"The Atlanta shooting was not even a week ago. Violent White men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country," wrote Harris on Monday several hours after the shooting.
Harris quickly backtracked on this accusation against White people the next day by deleting the tweet and publishing an apology.
"I deleted a previous tweet about the suspect in the Boulder shooting," she wrote. "I made an assumption based on his being taken into custody alive and the fact that the majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are carried out by White men."
Harris received a lot of criticism online for her "racially charged" accusation. Many were quick to point out that her "apology" was "worse than the original tweet," according to journalist and Free Beacon executive editor Brent Scher.
"Maybe you can do better than assume things about tragic events for retweets? Is that too much to ask?" wrote one attorney on Twitter.
"White men commit mass shootings about proportionately, and the vast majority of shooters of all races are taken into custody alive. These facts are not even controversial, in criminal justice or political science," wrote a college professor.
Harris is a lawyer, children's book author and a left-wing activist. She also served as a prominent surrogate for her aunt during the election.
Learn more about incidents of racism from the American left by reading the latest articles at RaceWar.news.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.