The man who killed two Aztec, N.M., students before ending his own life had an extensive history on white supremacy websites, where he used multiple aliases to troll people and spread pro-Donald Trump memes, authorities say.
When 21-year-old William Edward Atchinson opened fire on students at Aztec High School on Dec. 7, killing Casey Marquez and Francisco Fernandez, he left a thumb drive with a suicide note that read: “If things go according to plan, today would be when I die,” according to the Daily Beast. “I go somewhere and gear up, then hold a class hostage and go apeshit, then blow my brains out ... work sucks, school sucks, life sucks. I just want out of this shit.”
The FBI actually visited Atchinson a year before the shooting when agents investigated one of his online posts (you’re not going to believe this) asking where he could buy a gun for a school shooting. The FBI said it determined that Atchinson posed no threat, even though he was a frequent visitor to white supremacist websites and posted explicit threats of violence to himself and others.
He was banned from one site, Encyclopedia Dramatica, for two years for being a troll, although, while using another of his usernames, he became a moderator on the same site until users complained about him posting too many “alt-right” and pro-Columbine, Colo., high school shooter memes.
According to users familiar with Atchinson online, he was obsessed with school shooters, especially those at Columbine, which he referred to as “LOLumbine.” Atchinson also left reviews for games that included his racist ideologies, explaining that one game was “highly offensive for featuring mass murder against your own race.” Another review featured the simple phrase: “RIP Hitler.” Less than a month before his shooting spree, Atchinson wrote:
How am I supposed to function in this world? Wherever I go, I see degeneracy. Pointless materialism, hedonism, sexual decay, dirty niggers who do nothing but slowly break down this society etc. it’s fucking everywhere. No way to escape it, 99% of people are part of it and whatever I do I am confronted with the death of the West. Go to the store and buy groceries in peace? Nope, here’s a group of LGBT liberal filth in line with you. And there’s a nigger family with 10 kids over there. And a Finn too, but he’s overweight as fuck and he’s buying alcohol and shit junk food. Fucking fantastic.
I used to think that this was a phase and we’d get over it, but I have now come to realize that I was born into a literal dystopia.
According to Atchinson’s numerous online posts, he couldn’t find a job in fast food or retail and hadn’t had friends since he was a child. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade and referred to his father as a “fat lazy idiot who watches fox news all day” and his mother as “a psycho hillbilly drunk from florida who’s really mentally ill.”
The saddest part about this information you’re about to read is that—when you first read this post—I bet you said to yourself: “Oh yeah, there was a school shooting last week.”
Read more at the Daily Beast.