An Army sergeant who was convicted of murder this month in the fatal shooting of a protester in 2020 in Austin — and who Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he wants to pardon — posted on social media and sent messages about killing demonstrators and shared racist memes before the shooting, new court documents revealed.
Daniel Perry, 35, was found guilty by a Travis County jury on April 7 in the death of Garrett Foster, 28, on July 25, 2020, during protests in downtown Austin decrying police brutality and racism.
Though Perry had claimed he opened fire in self-defense, a newly unsealed filing reveals that Perry appeared to be increasingly disgruntled with the protests and looting that unfolded across the nation in the wake of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, and was also critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and talked about killing and shooting people.
White power memes and messages about killing people
A 76-page filing, dated March 27, was unsealed Thursday and revealed Perry’s social media footprint and private messages.
Perry had searched on his phone for information on protests going on in Texas and Seattle several times. Some searches included key words “protests tonight,” “protestors in Seattle gets shot” and “riot shoot outs,” the filing said.
A review of information extracted from his cellphone also revealed several racist memes: One was a white box with the text “It’s okay to be white” and another used the N-word.
Another meme found on his phone sent on May 29, 2020, had the text “my employer” with a photo of a building with a sign on it that said, “White power, White county power & light co,” the filing said.
He had also sent several messages about guns and killing others.
He also shared a meme on his Facebook page on March 17, 2020, that showed a girl sitting in her dad’s lap with a book. The girl in the meme was depicted saying: “Daddy, why do you play video games? and the dad said, “Because slaughtering…
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