"There was hate in this man's heart." That's what Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said Monday of the man who shot and killed two Black people in Winthrop, Mass., on Saturday, identified as 28-year-old Nathan Allen. "Whether that was the only reason he did what he did, we're not going to be fully sure," Rollins said at a press conference, per Boston.com. "But I can tell you I’m certain of his language, in his own handwriting, and certain of the fact that the two people that were murdered are Black." Allen—who had a firearm license and no criminal history—stole a plumbing truck, crashed it into a building, then opened fire in the street, killing 60-year-old Air Force veteran Ramona Cooper and 68-year-old David Green, a retired state trooper. White bystanders say the shooter spared their lives before he was killed by an officer when his gun jammed, per the Boston Globe.
Rollins said Allen's writings described white people as "apex predators" and included drawings of swastikas. She said he held "very disturbing beliefs, white supremacist beliefs, regarding members of our Jewish population, as well as Black individuals." Authorities note he may have intended to target Jewish temples near the crash scene. In the end, Cooper was shot multiple times in the back while Green was shot repeatedly in the head, neck, and torso. Green's neighbor Bill Leach, who is white, says both he and Green watched Allen shoot Cooper, per the Globe. He says he was taking cover when the shooter appeared "right beside me" and "we stared at each other," per WCAU. He says he was spared but then found Green lying on the ground. Green's brother, Aria, says he believes the retired trooper tried to prevent the shooter from "shooting any more people." (More hate crime stories.)
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