Liberal activists are claiming that the murder of a black teenage girl in Oakland last week was rooted in white supremacy.
Local police say they are looking at racism as a possible motive, though they say they have not found evidence yet that that was the killer’s motive.
As The Washington Times reports, police charged John Lee Cowell, who is both white and an ex-con, on Wednesday with the murder of Nia Wilson as she waited for a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) car.
That wasn’t the only homicide to occur along the BART line that week. Police are also seeking two black men in connection with two other murders.
Groups immediately linked Cowell’s alleged crime to racism. Women’s March asked people to “show up against white supremacy,” while Color of Change insisted the black girl was “killed by a white supremacist emboldened by the racist rhetoric of this [Trump] administration.”
Know Your Rights also proclaimed the accused to be a “white supremacist/terrorist.”
“We don’t have any information that indicates that, but that’s something that we haven’t taken off the table and we will look into that,” BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said at a news conference this week. “I know there’s been a lot of conversations on social media regarding that, but I don’t have one piece of evidence to suggest this is race-related. But should that be the case we will pursue the appropriate hate crimes.”