Recently, an immigrant family from Guatemala suffered a horrible incident with their racist white neighbor. He randomly shot at the family while they were peacefully hanging out in their backyard.
A Visible Hate Crime
An immigrant family in Nebraska was having a get together with some friends and family in they yard peacefully, not bothering anyone. When all of a sudden, 74 year old Billy Booth opened fired at their yard and injured seven out of the estimates 15 people that were present. Including children from as young as 3 years old and as old as 10 years old. Booth shot at the family from his house with a shotgun at around 4:30 pm. The racist man then killed himself after he shot the family.
It is said that all victims of the shooting are going to survive as there weren’t any life threatening wounds.
Anger in Nebraska
The community in Crete, Nebraska is outraged to say the least by this crime committed. The population in Crete of around 7 thousand residents is about 50% Hispanic and 25% foreign born. This is why it is confusing as to why there would be a racist person in the mainly Hispanic community.
Booth was said to have history of conflict with those immigrant neighbors for a long time before the shooting. He would usually call them names, tell them to go back to their country, and ask for them to “speak English”. It is because of these previous interactions Booth had with the victims that officers have stated the crime was most likely coming from pure racism.
However, some other neighbors have stated that Booth had gotten in many conflicts with some other white neighbors as well. Another one of Booth’s neighbors stated that he simply hated everything and everyone. Nonetheless, it is abundantly clear that his motive for shooting the immigrant family was out of pure racism. Yet, despite knowing this, the family chose not to press charges.
Written by Erika Cano
Sources:
Huff Post: White Man Shoots And Wounds 7 Immigrant Neighbors From Guatemala
AP News: White Nebraska man shoots and wounds 7 Guatemalan immigrant neighbors
Latin Post: Nebraska Shooting: White Man Targets 7 Guatemalan Immigrant Neighbors in Possible Racist Attack
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Erika Cano – AI Generated Images
Inset Image Courtesy of Erika Cano – AI Generated Images