This undated picture provided by the Fulton County Jail shows Nkosi Thandiwe. Thandiwe, 22, was taken into custody and charged with one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault Friday, July 15, 2011 after three women were shot in a parking deck in Atlanta's midtown business district. (Photo: AP)
Former security guard Nkosi Thandiwe was found guilty of murdering a woman and wounding two others during a shooting spree in July of 2011 and has been sentenced to life without parole, CBS Atlanta reports.
He confessed to the crimes during his testimony last week, adding some chilling details about his motivation. And prosecutors argued that Thandiwe was fueled by racist hate against whites.
“My mind was blank at the time,” he said -- but he still remembers what prompted the violence by his own twisted rationale. He cited anti-white ideas he learned at university.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has all the information:
During his testimony Wednesday, Thandiwe suggested that his reason for even purchasing the gun he used in the shootings was to enforce beliefs he’d developed about white people during his later years as an anthropology major at the University of West Georgia.“I was trying to prove a point that Europeans had colonized the world, and as a result of that, we see a lot of evil today,” he said. “In terms of slavery, it was something that needed to be answered for. I was trying to spread the message of making white people mend.”
He said the night before the shooting, he attended a so-called “Peace Party” intended to address his concerns about helping the black community find equal footing, but two white people were there.
“I was upset,” Thandiwe said. “I was still upset Friday. I took the gun to work because I was still upset from Thursday night.”
He even admitted to earlier that day getting angry enough on the job to shoot his supervisor.
“What my boss said to me …,” he told the jury, “that rage almost made me pull out my gun on him.” [Emphasis added]
The defense tried to plead insanity, but Fulton County assistant district attorney Linda Dunikoski set the record straight for the jury.
“He told you he shot Brittney Watts, Lauren Garcia and Tiffany Ferenczy because he had adopted all these racist ideals," she said. "If race disorder was a [mental illness], then the Ku Klux Klan could murder and kill with impunity.”
CBS Atlanta has more on the specifics of the case:
Thandiwe was found guilty on all 11 counts which include murder, aggravated assault and carjacking after he admitted in court on Wednesday to killing Brittany Watts, 26, and stealing her car.As Thandiwe drove away, he said he shot Lauren Garcia, 24, and Tiffany Ferenczy, 24, while they were walking across Crescent Avenue to a nearby restaurant on their lunch break.
Garcia was shot in the torso, and Ferenczy was shot in the calf.
Garcia's injuries left her paralyzed.
Thandiwe worked as a security guard in the parking garage where he killed Watts. He turned himself in to the police 6 hours and 15 minutes after the shootings. [Emphasis added]
(H/T: Blaze reader William L.)
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