WINTHROP, MASS. (WHDH) - Officials are investigating the shooting of a Black man and a Black woman in Winthrop on Saturday afternoon as a hate crime, saying that the suspect had written racist and anti-Semitic statements, according to Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
Nathan Allen, 28, shot and killed retired state trooper David L. Green, 58, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Ramona Cooper, 60, after stealing a box truck and crashing it into a building around 2:45 p.m., Rollins said, adding that a preliminary investigation is leading the DA’s office to investigate the killings as a hate crime.
“There is some troubling white supremacist rhetoric that was found in Nathan Allen’s own handwriting, anti-Semitic and racist sentiments against Black individuals,” Rollins said. “This is a sad day. These two people protected our rights and fought for us to be safe. They were executed yesterday and we will find out why.”
Allen allegedly drove twice the speed limit to an area that contained several Jewish temples prior to the crash.
He then passed by several people before shooting Cooper and Green, Rollins said.
“He walked by several other people that were not Black and they are alive, they were not harmed,” she said. “They are alive and these two people of color are not.”
A member of law enforcement fatally shot Allen, Rollins added.
Allen had a lawful license to carry a firearm and no criminal history, Rollins said.
Suspicious packages addressed to Allen were taken away as evidence on Sunday, along with racist and anti-Semitic writings, according to Rollins.
“This individual wrote about the superiority of the white race. About whites being ‘apex predators.’ He drew swastikas,” Rollins said. “There is a growing national, and global, problem with extremism and white supremacy. The FBI believes the most serious domestic violent extremist threat comes from ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the white race.’”
The scene of the alleged hate crime as been turned into a memorial for the victims as investigators continue to search for answers.
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