New Mexico School Shooter Was Obsessed With Killing Jews
A screenshot of a video game produced by New Mexico school murderer William Atchinson depicting the killing of a Jewish man Image by adl
By Nathan Guttman December 19, 2017
William Atchinson, a 21-year-old gas station attendant, entered Aztec High School in northern New Mexico on December 7 disguised as a student. He embarked on a shooting spree which killed two students and injured several others, before killing himself.
Atchinson did not give a reason for his actions, but it was later revealed that had been investigated by the FBI last year after making online comments about mass killings.
In a report published Monday, the Anti-Defamation League noted that Atchinson was also fixated on anti-Semitic fantasies of killing Jews.
“Atchison frequently manipulated video games such as Grand Theft Auto to create scenes, from which Atchison would post screenshots to his account, of people killing Jews or people intended to appear to be Jews,” the report stated. “These graphic images would frequently be accompanied by equally graphic language from Atchison, such as ‘KILL THE JEW,’ ‘RUN OVER THE JEW,’ ‘toten der jude,’ ‘FUCKING DIE JEW,’ ‘JEW-HUNTING,’ ‘RUN LITTLE JEW!!!’
He was also versed in anti-Semitic language and used phrases such as “the goyim know,” which are meant to point to a Jewish conspiracy.
“Had Atchison lived in a city with a significant Jewish population, it is even possible the tragedy he caused might have taken an anti-Semitic form instead of the shape that it did,” the ADL concluded.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Fast Forward Is the Passover Seder Zionist?
-
Fast Forward David Sassoon, the Jewish royal designer who dressed Princess Diana, dies at 92
-
Fast Forward For a second straight Passover, Jews mark Festival of Freedom while hostages remain in Gaza
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
- 3
Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
- 4
Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Jews thought Trump wanted to fight antisemitism. Why did he cut all of their grants?
-
Opinion Trump’s followers see a savior, but Jewish historians know a false messiah when they see one
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Opinion This Passover, let’s retire the word ‘Zionist’ once and for all
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.