From the Ledger-Enquirer:
Columbus police say shooting spree was racially motivated
THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJUNE 15, 2021 06:12 AM
COLUMBUS, GA.
A 39-year-old man accused of shooting and wounding five people in Alabama and Georgia told police his assaults were racially motivated, and he was targeting white men, a detective testified Monday.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported that a police detective testified in a preliminary hearing that Justin Tyran Roberts, who is Black, told police that white men had picked on him and wronged him for all his life.
“Basically, he explained throughout his life, specifically white males had taken from him, and also what he described as military-looking white males had taken from him,” Detective Brandon Lockhart testified, according to the newspaper.
Police have accused Roberts of shooting five people in three separate assaults in Columbus, Georgia and Phenix City, Alabama. All victims are expected to recover, Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon said Sunday. The chief added that police found no evidence that Roberts knew any of his victims. …
Roberts also claimed that such men were “shooting at him in a wooded area with a slingshot,” and the wounds had infected his skin, Lockhart testified. But he said police saw no injuries to substantiate that.
Public defender Robin King requested a mental health evaluation for Roberts, saying the man was suffering from delusions.
The next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders should have an entry for Zeitgeist Poisoning in which crazy people act on what sane people tell them about the world.
