A now-suspended Twitter account that appeared to belong to the Dayton mass shooter showed extreme-left postings in which he lamented President Trump’s election and encouraged people to cut fences at immigration detention centers, according to reports.
Though the Twitter account @iamthespookster does not bear 24-year-old Connor Betts’ name, it does include selfies that resemble known images of him.
The Washington Post captured over 3,000 tweets from the account, which was created in December 2013.
The most recent tweet was on Saturday, hours before the shooting, when he retweeted a post saying, “Millenials have a message for the Joe Biden generation: hurry up and die,” according to CNN.
Betts also retweeted messages backing Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
One tweet read: “I want socialism, and i’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding,” Newsweek reported.
The account, which had 301 followers, was taken down by Twitter late Sunday amid speculation it belonged to Betts.
A Twitter rep told the Washington Post that the company removes all “content that violates our policies and will be engaged with law enforcement, as appropriate” but declined to elaborate.
Dayton police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the account. Police in Betts’ suburban hometown of Bellbrook said they hadn’t been aware of his tweets before or after the massacre.
The user’s Twitter bio read, “he/him / anime fan / metalhead / leftist / I’m going to hell and I’m not coming back.” In one tweet, the writer used the hashtag #HailSatan, CNN reported.
Betts “liked” several tweets about the Saturday shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left 22 dead, including one supporting gun control and others that called shooting suspect Patrick Crusius a “terrorist,” and a “white supremacist,” according to the network.
He retweeted posts against ICE agents, including one that called them “monsters,” and several posts denouncing police, and supporting Antifa, or anti-fascist, protesters, who often use violent tactics.
The user called described southern border migrant detention centers as “concentration camps” — echoing the language of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to Newsweek.
“Cut the fences down. Slice ICE tires. Throw bolt cutters over the fences,” he wrote.
The user also shared posts slamming capitalism, and at least once retweeted a post jokingly calling for the “beheading” of oil bigwigs as a way to fight climate change.
He also expressed his anger over the Equifax data breach and retweeted a July 29 post reading: “Losing your personal information in a massive data breach is just a thing that happens now, like 110 degree days and regular mass shootings.”
The user retweeted a post that instructed people to “buy a gun and learn to use it responsibly” because “you may need to protect yourself.”
Authorities are still trying to determine what motivated Betts to kill nine people early Sunday in downtown Dayton. Patrolling cops shot him dead 30 seconds after he opened fire.
With Post wires
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