Last week, Garrett Foster, 28, was shot and killed during a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin, Texas. Foster was reportedly pushing his fiancée in a wheelchair moments before he was shot thrice by a car driver who then sped away.
The man who pulled the trigger has now been identified as Daniel Perry, an active-duty sergeant with the US Army, as reported by Tribune of the People. This has been confirmed by a press release from Perry's attorneys.
According to audio recordings of the police dispatch made in response to the 911 call on the night of the shooting, July 25, vehicle license reports, interviews with eyewitnesses, background checks and online research, Perry was the man who drove into the protest in downtown Austin before killing Foster.
"The person at Cesar Chavez (where Perry pulled over his vehicle after the shooting), I can give you a shooter, he says someone pointed a gun at him so he shot him back, he should be in a vehicle with hazards on," the dispatcher said.
The dispatch mentions the license plate number NFN9573, which lists Perry as the registered owner of the 2020 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid that was seen by multiple witnesses and photographed at the time of the shooting.
The car is also tied to a Killeen, Texas address which corresponds with the address listed on a background check report of "Daniel S Perry."
Perry Harassed People at Vigil Held for Foster
Perry was released from police custody within 24 hours of the shooting and was captured on camera harassing people at a vigil held for Foster the next day, according to the report.
"The extent of Perry's hatred for what Garrett represented, a true hero and servant of the people, was exposed when he harassed those who had set up a vigil for Garrett," the Tribune noted.
Perry Fantasized About Killing BLM Protesters
Perry's Twitter account is riddled with tweets expressing his extremist views and how violence should be used to deal with protesters days before he killed Foster.
For instance, on June 3, in a reply to a tweet, Perry talks about how to kill someone by shooting them. "Fuck that shit you shoot center of mass," he wrote. "1 it is a bigger target. 2 it still drops them. 3 even if you shoot them in the leg there is a major artery that will cause the person to bleed out in just a few minutes."
In response to another June 19 tweet from President Donald Trump warning protesters who he expected to show up at his rally, Perry tweeted: "Send them to Texas we will show them why we say don't mess with Texas." The tweets have since been taken down but not before Twitter users took screenshots.
