Church Shooter Identified

Get ready for a shock -- he's a repeat felon who should have still been in jail.

The man who fatally shot two people at a White Settlement Church on Sunday before being killed by church security has been identified as a 43-year-old Keith Thomas Kinnunen, a River Oaks man with a criminal record, according to two law enforcement sources.

Kinnunen is believed to have been wearing a disguise, including a fake beard, when he stood up, pulled a shotgun from his clothing and opened fire inside the church...

The disguise tells me he intended to flee and escape, rather than just dying in the midst of his rampage. And that maybe he knew about the church's videocameras.

Earlier I quoted a cop, via CNN, saying that this guy was a "transient" with few or no roots in the area. But I misread that quote -- he did have roots in the area, so this could have been personal after all.

The FBI is working to identify the shooter's motive. Matthew DeSarno, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Dallas field office, said the gunman was "relatively transient," but had roots in the area.

He was a repeat felon:

Kinnunen had a criminal record in Tarrant County including charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2009 and theft of property in 2013.

This seems like it might indicate some kind of prior terrorist intent:

Kinnunen also was arrested in September 2016 for possession of an illegal weapon in Linden, New Jersey, after he was found taking pictures outside an oil refinery, according to news reports at the time.

The media isn't seizing and pouncing on him as a right wing extremist, which makes me think, as the hours pass, that he's likely one of their own.

The longer we go without the media claiming he's a Trump voter, the higher the odds that he's a Rachel Maddow Superfan.

Meanwhile, a friend says they media will now attempt to dig up nasty stuff about Jack Wilson, the hero who took out this trash.

Why? Because he used his gun lawfully and for a good purpose, and because he says he's glad he ended an "evil."

You can't call mass murderers "evil" -- that kind of dehumanizing language is reserved only for Trump supporters.

[Jack] Wilson was hailed as a hero by local law enforcement officials after stopping a gunman who killed two members of the congregation in the town of White Settlement, deacon Anton “Tony” Wallace and fellow security team member Richard White. Wilson, who owns a gun range, told NBC News on Monday that he was still grappling with the death of his two friends and concerns for the close-knit congregation.

"I don’t feel like I killed a human, I killed an evil and that’s how I’m coping with the situation," Wilson said.

I'm sure Buzzfeed, Vox, and the Fun Bunch at CNN are already conducting an extensive Routine Social Media Background Check on this guy, hoping to find any pretext to call him a Nazi.

Meanwhile, a prior Joe Biden bloviation is getting a fresh look:

And, if you missed it in the sidebar:

posted by Ace at 05:02 PM

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