Feds Charge Anonymous Tweeter Who Threatened to ‘Kill Blacks’ After Buffalo Massacre
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A man from Buffalo, New York tweeted from an anonymous account that he was “looking to kill blacks” at several locations in the state two days a different man allegedly killed 10 Black shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket, federal officials said. Rolik Walker, 24, allegedly told investigators the post was more of an experiment than a threat and admitted he used a VPN to anonymize the now-deactivated @ConklinHero account, which is a reference to the accused mass shooter’s hometown of Conklin. Walker said the “purpose of the post was to see what everyone would say and if anyone would agree with him,” an affidavit says. “[He] claimed to want to see how segregated social media was and that once the post was made it spread within approximately thirty seconds.” Federal officials dismissed his claim that he didn’t know the post was a crime, arguing in the affidavit that the recent racist massacre, the Conklin reference and the steps Walker took to hide his identity proved otherwise.