Updated as of 4/14/2023 at 10:30 a.m. ET
A Travis County judge unsealed court documents that revealed a series of racist social posts and messages shared by Daniel Perry, the man convicted in fatally shooting a Black Lives Matter protester, according to Austin American-Statesman. Perry’s conviction was recently challenged by Gov. Greg Abbott who sought to pardon him.
Perry issued a number of anti-BLM messages ahead of the shooting that seem to support his guilty conviction way more than the governor’s notion that he killed the demonstrator in simple self-defense.
“Black Lives Matter is racist to white people...It is official I am racist because I do not agree with people acting like monkeys,” he wrote in one post.
In other posts, he slammed the BLM movement for promoting a “victim mentality,” he argued that George Floyd wasn’t a martyr and made threats against BLM demonstrators believing they’d attack him because he is Jewish. He even made a post saying if people believe the Confederate flag represents racism, then so does the NAACP logo. Yes, you read that correctly. All these red flags and desperate attempts to justify his own racism sound more like he was looking for a problem July 26, 2020.
A day after the shooting, he sent a post to a friend that said, “I was attacked yesterday and I had to defend myself...”
Gov. Abbott Seeks a Pardon for Perry
Following the release of these unsealed documents where Perry proclaims himself as a racist, Gov. Abbott didn’t respond to the Statesman’s request for comment. Abbott announced he was looking to undo Perry’s guilty verdict, according to USA TODAY.
Though the jury found the man guilty as charged, Abbott said he planned to pardon him based on the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
Apparently, there was more than one Kyle Rittenhouse threatening the lives of demonstrators in 2020. Daniel Perry, now 35, was indicted in 2021 for fatally shooting BLM protester Garrett Foster in Austin three years ago. The report says Perry was an active-duty sergeant but doing Uber rides downtown the night of the protest. He was accused of driving his car through a red light directly into the march prompting Foster, who was carrying an AK-47 rifle, to approach the vehicle with a group of protesters.
Perry alleges he was threatened by Foster, shot at him five times with his firearm through the window of his car and drove away. Despite the impression that Perry instigated this interaction, his defense team argued he acted in self-defense. The jury wasn’t convinced and Perry was convicted on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and deadly conduct charges.
Then, here came running Gov. Abbott, defending the reckless actions that led to the death of an innocent man.
Less than 24 hours after a Texas jury convicted Army Sgt. Daniel Perry of murder in the 2020 shooting of a protester, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on social media Saturday that he will pardon Perry as soon as a request “hits my desk.”
The unprecedented effort, which Abbott announced to his 1 million followers on Twitter, came as Abbott faced growing calls from national conservative figures such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted in the shooting deaths of two Wisconsin protesters in 2020, to act to urgently undo the conviction.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” Abbott said in a tweet. “I will work as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.”
Texas’ “stand your ground” law states that a person does not have to retreat from using deadly force if they are in a place they have a right to be, not engaged in criminal activity and has not provoked their assailant. According to the order of events, Perry wasn’t assaulted by Foster but instead nearly assaulted a group of demonstrators with his vehicle who would have then had the right to “stand their ground” after being provoked. No?
Well, the jury found him not guilty of speeding his car into the crowd.
Nevertheless, this support from the we watched Kyle Rittenhouse kill two people and injure another after crossing county lines to counterprotest a Black Lives Matter demonstration and get away with it. Now, he’s an aspiring political figure, backed by Faux News and rallying for people to support Perry’s pardon.
However, Abbott’s pardon still needs approval from the Board of Pardons and Paroles (who were appointed by him). Pardons are usually announced every December, the report says. Until Christmas time, Perry will be sentenced and sent to prison.