Social media was abuzz with two clear narratives from leftists following yesterday’s shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, that left ten people dead, including a police officer. The first was the standard calls for gun control that follow any mass shooting. The second was the all-too-familiar cries about “white supremacist domestic terrorists” on the rampage across the nation.
All of the fury for the second narrative was based on a pixelated image of the suspect being arrested. A bearded, shirtless man with a seemingly lighter complexion can be seen in the viral image. As such, the cries against “white supremacy” rang out loud and clear. But they’ve suddenly stopped now that the suspect’s name has been released.
Ahmad Al-Issa.
His name is Ahmad Al-Issa … just FYI. https://t.co/ZdeEc6qzLZ
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) March 23, 2021
A name can be relatively meaningless when determining the race of an individual, but this suspects name is commonly associated with people of Arab or Persian descent. And looking at the image, the suspect could be from a Middle Eastern heritage.
Authorities said Al-Issa lived “most of his life in the United States” during a Tuesday morning press conference. They are looking into his background, but did not release additional information on his past. Nevertheless, this too points to new assumptions about his history with potential ties to foreign origins or heritage.
Information is still trickling out and jumping to conclusions is never a good idea for the media, but it’s impossible to avoid on social media. This was a terrorist attack. The only question now is whether it should be considered a domestic terrorist attack or a move by a foreign terrorist. No motive has been released by authorities.
Social media loves to pounce. But as the “white supremacist domestic terrorist” narrative becomes less and less credible, many on the left are already changing the subject.
