NOTE: This article may include commentary reflecting the author’s position.
With the facts of this case being VERY inconvenient for the activist class, don’t expect this story to stay in the headlines long. In fact, this is one mass shooting that’s sure to be dropped down the memory hole.
What makes this one different?
The perpetrator in this story checks all the wrong boxes.
The media LOVES a gun-nut-goes-ballistic story — so long as the ‘gun nut’ can be somehow linked to the political right.
Was the killer from a Christian family? (‘Oppressive’ is implied. Obviously.)
Was it perpetrated by one of those ‘horrible’ straight white males?
Was it someone from a blue-collar or rural background?
Can they find some dig up online content they can somehow connect to alleged ‘white supremacy’, or ‘fascist’ beliefs — no matter how many counterfactuals they have to ignore to make that claim?
Check any of those boxes and you’ve got a story with legs. Heck, if it suits the media narrative needs of the day, it might even be elevated to become the next Parkland School story.
This story doesn’t check any of those boxes. Like the Nashville school shooter whose manifesto has not been released to the public, aside from the choice of weapon, this crime checks off all the WRONG kinds of boxes.
This shooting involves someone by the name of Kimbrady Watson Carriker, who is implicated in a mass shooting in Philadelphia.
The Crime — One of Philly’s deadliest-ever mass shootings
On Monday, July 3, the crime scene spanned several blocks as the shooter ‘apparently fired randomly’ from a vehicle at unsuspecting victims.
In the end, five people were killed, and two children were injured as a result of this violence. The slain victims ranged in age from 15-59. The youngest, Daujan Brown, was killed while trying to render aid to a badly wounded 13yo friend.
After perhaps fifty shots had been fired, the suspect was apprehended alive in an alley, and faces a litany of charges.
When the suspect was arrested, it was reported that a ballistic vest was worn while the killings took place. A long gun, a hand gun, and a police scanner were also in the suspect’s possession at the time of arrest.
For those keeping score at home, the accused did not have a valid right to own a gun at the time of the shootings, and ‘carrying a firearm without a valid permit’ will be among the long list of more serious charges being faced.
The Victims
The names of the five people killed have been released.
Dajaun Brown is the 15 year old.
Lashyd Merritt was a 22yo with an office job in the government.
Dymir Stanton, 29
Ralph Moralis, 59
Joseph Wamah, 31
The victims that lived and are in stable condition involved the injured 13yo that Dajuan spent his final moments trying to help (two shots to the leg) and a two year old toddler also shot in the leg. Other occupants in that toddler’s car (which had numerous rounds fired into it) including the toddler’s twin, suffered injuries from broken glass.
Photos of some victims are available. Those photos indicate that at least some of the victims are of the same ethnicity as the shooter, removing one of the media’s preferred motives from possible consideration.
The Suspect
As always, the accused has an opportunity for a day in court, but like so many of these shootings, it’s difficult to imagine what possible alibi might be offered in a situation like this one.
There are a few details about the accused that would make the media want to back away slowly from this story.
The first involves possible motivations.
While some aspects of his media account critical of Joe Biden and one Trump-friendly 2A-related social media post are being offered as clues to the suspect’s state of mind or motivation, that doesn’t paint the full picture.
On his Facebook page, Carriker posted two pictures of himself wearing a bra, a women’s top and earrings with his hair braided long in March, three months before the alleged shooting.
He also regularly posts about supporting Black Lives Matter, including supporting workers who protested in the Strike For Black Lives in July 2020.
[…]
In May 2020, Carriker also posted a video to his Facebook of a burning Philadelphia police car that 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.
The shooter, who was taken into custody without incident, didn’t have any connection to the victims prior to the shooting, Outlaw added. — NYPost
Other sources added more in the same vein:
Additionally, he frequently made social media posts supporting Black Lives Matter, including showing support for workers who protested in the ‘Strike For Black Lives’ in July 2020. He had also shared unsettling posts on Facebook such as “How do you know if an evil spirit is following you” and “We kept the receipts,” as well as a picture of a map displaying notable US “black massacres.” –Meaww
About the gun use
Tina’s daughter, Cianni Rosette, 24, who lived with Tina and Carriker in West Philadelphia, said the two of them got along for a while, and that she enjoyed Carriker’s personality, which she said was “cool” and creative.
But unlike her mother, Cianni Rosette said Carriker did show her a handgun several times and “was trying to get me comfortable around guns and stuff like that.”
And she said Carriker could be difficult to talk to occasionally — someone who could be aloof or easy to anger, even if not outwardly expressing it. — Philadelphia Inquirer
Suspect is described as a ‘cross-dresser’
Facebook posts from March 2022 show Carriker dressed as a woman, wearing a bra, hooped earrings and gold bracelets. — DailyMail
When some people have commented on the sudden (and situationally-selective) resurgance of the word ‘cross-dresser’ despite the fact that activists have tried to drum into our heads for years that the gender-role defying clothes you wear are every bit as much a part of gender identity questions as any other facet of life.
In fact, some news reporting is specifically objecting to any instance on the political right to conflate the word ‘cross-dresser’ with the word ‘trans’.
While crossdressers are not necessarily transgender, this detail about Carriker became the reason for a surge in anti-trans posts on social media. Carriker’s arrest after the bloodshed sparked a wave of anger on the Internet, with one user saying, “Media won’t talk about this so we will. Time to start having a national dialogue on Trans mass shooters that target children. Enough!!” A second user said, “We need to really look to see if medications might be involved. It sounds so very likely.” A third user wrote, “The names and locations may change, but the faces and patterns of behavior remain the same.” Another one said, “So they might want to release Audrey Hale’s manifesto so we might better understand what these people are thinking.” Another tweeted, “These radical Trans are destroying decades pf (sic) progress made by LGB movement.” –Meaww
The only other recent instance we can recall the word ‘crossdresser’ was used instead of words like ‘drag’ or ‘trans’ was the story of a drug-fuelled party with men dressed as women, drugs and sex toys involved, and a dead body. (Did we mention the children that had been ushered into a back room out of sight of first responders?)
Find that story here: GROOMERS: Party With Dead ‘Trans Woman’, 4 Drag Queens, Sex Toys, Drugs — And Four Kids Under 10
Sources Cited:
NYPost
Philadelphia Inquirer
Meaww
DailyMail
