An “obsessed” man claims cable news drove him to shoot two Latino men after he became “pissed” by illegal immigration, reports Mediaite.
According to a Department of Justice press release, 58-year-old Douglas Wayne Cornett pleaded guilty to “two federal hate crimes involving attempts to kill and to discharging a firearm during a February 2024 attack that left two Latino men with gunshot wounds."
Cornett followed victims to a gas station along Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County, Va., before shooting them with a Sig Sauer P320 handgun.
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The gunman demanded to know “how long … [they] had been present in the United States.” Upon learning that the victims had arrived within the last two years, “Cornett drew a handgun and fired six rounds, striking O.G. three times,” and the man’s friend once, according to the Department of Justice.
Cornett told investigators he was “‘p—————’ about undocumented migrants receiving welfare funds, phones and health insurance,” and had prowled streets before, contemplating attacks. He also told investigators “he fantasized about flying an Apache helicopter gunship to the border and firing on undocumented migrants traveling into the United States.”
At his home, investigators found “multiple Confederate flags,” the cowboy hat he wore on camera footage at the time of the attack and a jean jacket containing the semi-automatic weapon used in the attempted murder.
Cornett’s housemates confirmed Cornett was a “heavy consumer of cable news” and had become “kind of obsessed” with non-citizens.
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“Crimes like Douglas Cornett’s … victimize not just the individual, but harm families, communities, and groups by robbing them of their sense of security,” said Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Every person has a right to live free of the fear of violence and the menace of hate, and my office is committed to eliminating both.”
Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant AG for the Civil Rights Division, added that Cornett’s crime was “a direct assault on the principles of equality and justice that define our nation.”
Read Mediaite’s full report at this link.