By NAN Contributor
News Americas, DALLAS, Texas, Fri. July 8, 2016: While the nation mourned and the American flag was lowered to half-staff, some were busy using the comments section of some web-based media to anonymously disparage the name of Mexican-American former Navy reservist and Marine veteran turned Police Officer Patrick Zamarripa, who was killed Thursday night by veteran Micah Xavier Johnson of Mesquite, Texas.
As many expressed shock and sadness at the senseless July 7, 2016 killing of Zamarripa along with Dallas Police Officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol and DART Police Officer Brent Thompson – the deadliest single incident for U.S. law enforcement since September 11, 200, some were taking to the web to spew hate.
“He wants to be white so bad. Lmao. guess now he can burn in hell with all the other whites for all eternity!!!!!,” someone calling themselves “Black KKK” wrote on Heavy.com.
Posting on the same site but under just: ‘Anonymous,’ another poster wrote: “I know it’s wrong to think this but he looks like such a stuck up, racist asshole. I just know he was a lousy human being. People like that try to hard to overcompensate for being assholes. Sorry if that offends his family.”
Many on the board, however, rushed to defend the dead officer’s name and slam the haters by urging them to “stop spewing hate and offer prayers for him, his family and this country.”
Zamarripa, 33, was a husband and father of a two-year-old daughter. He was killed in a hail of bullets from the shooter who took aim from an elevated position at police officers providing security at a Black Lives Matter protest in the downtown area of Dallas.
His family moved from Mexico to Texas for a better life. He was born in Texas and went on to join the Navy in 2001. He served with Mobile Security Squadron 21 in Portsmouth, Virginia, at Naval Air Station Pensacola, and with Naval Security Force, Manama, Bahrain, before transferring to the Navy Reserve in 2009. He was currently assigned to Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 13, Gulfport, Mississippi, according to a bio provided by Navy officials and was a Master-at-Arms 2nd Class.
Zamarripa’s father, Rick, told The Washington Post: “He comes to the United States to protect people here. And they take his life.”
