Media, Activists Assumed Colorado Shooter Was White, Delete Posts, Pivot When His Identity Revealed

As soon as a shooting was reported at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store, members of the media and activists rushed to insist the shooter must be white and, specifically, a “white supremacist,” before his identity was even released.

When news outlets reported that the suspect had been apprehended, numerous verified Twitter accounts suggested the shooter must be white, as any other race, some claimed, would have been shot at the scene. The suspected shooter was shot at the scene, but in the leg, and was taken into custody. DeadSpin editor Julie DiCaro and USA Today editor Hemal Jhaveri insisted in a conversation that the shooter was a “white man,” with Jhaveri referring to him as “an angry white man.”