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Ahmad Alissa: Liberals claiming gunman is 'White male' slammed after suspect identified as Syrian American

A series of tweets about the shooting at a grocery store in Boulder conveniently assumed the suspect to be a white male, thereby suggesting a race-based pattern in mass shootings across the country

Prominent liberals inundated social media with premature claims that the Boulder gunman was a "White male", sparking outrage after law enforcement revealed the suspect's real identity on Tuesday.

A series of tweets about the shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 10 people on Monday, conveniently assumed the suspect to be a White male, thereby, suggesting a race-based pattern in mass shootings across the country. Boulder police, however, later identified the shooter as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who is not White, Newsweek reported.

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A number of notable Twitter users did not think twice before assuming that the suspect was White after police took him into custody unharmed, arguing he would not have received the same treatment if he were "Black or Brown". 

One of these voices was Meena Harris, niece of Vice President Kamala Harris. "The Atlanta shooting was not even a week ago. Violent white men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country," she declared on Twitter shortly after news of the Boulder shooting broke. 

She later deleted the tweet and admitted her mistake on Tuesday. "I deleted a previous tweet about the suspect in the Boulder shooting. I made an assumption based on his being taken into custody alive and the fact that the majority of mass shootings in the US are carried out by white men," she wrote.

Meanwhile, several other prominent liberals resorted to making assumptions about the gunman before authorities identified Alissa. “The shooter was taken into custody,” feminist Amy Siskind tweeted Monday. “In other words, it was almost certainly a white man (again). If he were Black or Brown he would be dead."

When critics mocked her for assuming the shooter was White, she tried to fend herself by saying “his name does not determine skin color. Nor does religion.” 

USA Today race and inclusion editor Hemal Jhaveri also declared that “it’s always an angry white man. always,” and deleted her tweet following the backlash, according to Fox. 

Critics lashed out at Meena Harris after she deleted her premature tweet on the shooter's race and appeared to feign an apology. "Stop being racist & you’ll make less racist mistakes," journalist Rita Panahi tweeted.

'It's not even an apology'

“Maybe you can do better than assume things about tragic events for RTs?” one wrote. “Is that too much to ask?” “Apology worse than the original tweet?” another chimed in. "Lol it’s not even an apology, it’s more like an excuse. 'The facts didn’t support my exploitation of a terror attack, so let’s forget the facts and keep exploiting this terror attack,'" a third added. 

Meanwhile, one user lashed out against Siskind, tweeting, "Man, your racism f**ked you right up this time. Better luck (and less racism!) next time!" 

The suspect from Monday's tragedy was not white. Authorities said Alissa was wounded in the leg during "an exchange of gunfire" before he was taken into custody at about 3.30 pm. He was subsequently rushed to hospital and is currently in stable condition. Alissa is expected to be remanded in custody at the Boulder County Jail on 10 counts of first-degree murder.

It has since emerged that the suspect's identity was known to the FBI because he was linked to another individual being investigated by the bureau. Meanwhile, Boulder law enforcement said they had two encounters with Alissa in 2018 — one on a report of third-degree assault and one about criminal mischief. However, it is unclear if he was convicted in those cases.