Every time there’s a mass shooting, there always seems to be this political crush to immediately politicize it to make it serve whatever the narrative is that people want to push.
It seems like there’s always a combing through of the shooter’s social media interactions to try to pin the shooting on a side. And whatever the background, the anti-gun folks on the left make it a staple to attack the guns, not the shooters who just opened fire on people.
The mass shooter who shot and killed five people in Philadelphia on Monday — Independence Day eve — has been identified as Kimbrady Carriker. Carriker, 40, allegedly shot people indiscriminately in the Kingessing neighborhood, killing four men and a 15-year-old teenage boy. He also allegedly wounded a two-year-old and a 13-year-old, who were both shot multiple times in the legs. Another two-year-old and a 33-year-old woman were hit by flying glass as a result of the shooting.
Police have no known motive yet for the shooting, and the alleged killer has no known connection to any of the victims at this point. The suspect was wearing a bulletproof vest and had an AR-15 with multiple magazines as well as a handgun.
Carriker seems to defy a lot of narratives.
In March, Carriker posted pictures of himself dressed as a woman, including photos of him wearing a bra, women’s clothes, and earrings.
He posted about supporting Black Lives Matter, including supporting people involved in the Strike for Black Lives in July 2020. He also posted the black raised fist, which is often used as a radical leftist or black power symbol. He followed the Black Lives Matter Philly account as well.
In May 2020 Carriker also posted a video to his Facebook of a burning Philadelphia police car which had been daubed with grafitti including “ACAB” — an acronym for “all coppers are b—ds” — and captioned it: “I was there; where were you? #we matter.” However, it is unclear if he had filmed the video himself.
Carriker said he was a computer engineer, but he also posted a lot about guns and didn’t appear to be a fan of Joe Biden because he viewed him as anti-gun, according to posts. He mocked Biden’s strange “God Save the Queen” comment from a couple of weeks ago.
Carriker shared a video of Biden and wrote, “This y’all president. We said 2A defends our rights. Now its god save the queen while he attempts to take our arms.” He also shared a video headlined, “Biden turns red coat, in latest gun grabbing speech,” and wrote, “I told you he wanted your rights. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN SAYS BIDEN.”
Carriker also shared a post from President Trump’s Patriot Army that reads, “Who supports President Trump in 2024?”
He shared a photo of a sweatshirt that read, “I lubricate my AR-15 with liberal tears.” He shared a YouTube video of Tucker Carlson that said he humiliated Eric Swalwell.
A former roommate of Carriker’s was surprised by the shooting but also noted that Carriker had been in a “dark place,” though she didn’t know why.
Carriker had some prior criminal history. He was arrested in 2003 and charged with possession of a weapon without a license, carrying a firearm in public, and drug possession, according to Philadelphia court records.
So what to make of all this? Can a person hold all those disparate views? The clue might be in the “dark place.” One of the things that always seems to get overlooked in the rush to politicize shootings is that the issue of mental health, which often factors heavily, seems to get passed over. Folks on the left are always too busy attacking the gun rather than ever addressing the real questions about the increased issues with mental health. We don’t know what the facts are here, and we will doubtless find out more as the case unfolds. But because of the BLM and women’s clothes element, we may see this disappear from the liberal media.