U.S. Army sergeant who shot Austin protester Garrett Foster posted tweets about retaliating against demonstrators
The man suspected of killing anti-police brutality protester Garrett Foster in Austin on Saturday has been identified as an active U.S. Army sergeant named Daniel Perry.
Perry’s lawyer also confirmed to The Texas Tribune late Friday that his client wrote tweets that have strengthened activists’ concerns about the shooter’s frame of mind, the validity of his self-defense claim and Austin police officials’ handling of the investigation.
(. . .)
In June, when President Donald Trump tweeted that “protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes” protesting in Oklahoma would face “a much different scene” than protesters in New York or Minneapolis, Perry responded from a now-deleted account with the username “@knivesfromtrigu.” The tweet read, “Send them to Texas we will show them why we say don’t mess with Texas.” That account was identified as being connected to Perry by Tribune of the People, which bills itself as a “revolutionary news service.”
(. . .)
Texas’ so-called “stand-your-ground” law allows people to use deadly force against someone else if they feel they are in danger. It also prohibits an individual from arguing self-defense if they provoked a threat from someone else.
“The simple fact is that Sgt. Perry reasonably perceived a threat to his life when, as has now been confirmed by independent witnesses, Mr. Foster raised his assault rifle toward Sgt. Perry who was sitting in his car,” Broden said in his release.
But Perry’s tweets added to the concerns of those who already were skeptical that he was acting in self-defense.
Capochiano and other witnesses have said Perry seemed to drive threateningly into the crowd before shots were fired, and his actions seemed intentional.
