[Video] Atheist Hater Murders A Young Woman

[vow66]

Another Crazy Christian "Anthony Powell" Murders Asia McGowan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTzvaXWiZDE

Asia McGowan's YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/AsiaMcGowan

[YOY]

1. How horrible.

Dude really had problems...sad he had to take someone with him in his exit.

[MindPilot]

2. Why didn't he have his own Fox news show?

And coming up next Glen Beck and Tony Powell host "The Righteous Bros"

Where ever there is madness, you'll find religion. How tragic.

[struggle4progress]

3. "... Powell's grief-stricken parents -- a retired Detroit Police officer and a registered nurse --

said Sunday their 28-year-old son had a history of mental illness. Sam and Doris Powell said they tried for years to get help for their son's clinical depression and other problems ..."

Monday, April 13, 2009
Dearborn murder-suicide suspect had hate videos on YouTube
Internet pal said he warned police before murder-suicide Friday at community college
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090413/METRO01/904130324/&imw=Y

It might help if mental healthcare were more readily available or if guns were less readily available

[Occam Bandage]

4. Was Ms. McGowan an atheist?

That is to say, was this a hate crime directed at atheists? Given the content of the shooter's videos, as described at http://www.wxyz.com/mostpopular/story/Rantings-Uncovered-Following-Murder-Suicide/-qvF9UMOqk6Wnmls8lAVpA.cspx , it looks like this was perhaps motivated by his problems with women.

[struggle4progress]

7. She was a 20 year-old kid at a community college who wanted to be a famous choreographer

Watch her video at the link in the OP: she probably didn't care much about philosophical issues but simply expected people should do what they wanted to do and leave other people alone if they weren't interested. She had the misfortune to become an object of the attention of a person with major problems

... His mother, Doris Powerll said she thought her son would kill himself. "I'm really thinking about killing myself. I think I am going to do it. I'm just scared." Powell stated on YouTube ...
Campus Killer Speaks Out On YouTube
POSTED: Monday, April 13, 2009
UPDATED: 2:31 pm EDT April 13, 2009
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19165557/detail.html

... Dearborn police are continuing to look for a motive ...
Family: Student's mother did not meet daughter’s killer
By DAN CORTEZ • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 12, 2009
http://www.freep.com/article/20090412/NEWS05/90412018/Slain+student+s+mother+did+not+meet+daughter+s+killer++family+says

[dmallind]

8. Does it make a difference?

Fundy Xian hates atheists and kills. Whether he thought he was doing God's work or not (and who could consider that unlikely in all honesty) and whether he thought she was an atheist or not, or even whether she was one, is immaterial to yet another connection between religious extremism and slaughter.

[Occam Bandage]

9. Yes. It does. Hate crimes are a special problem.

Moreover, the fact that he had vlogged about his frustrations with and hatred of women (and it seems in particular this one), and the mental-health treatment his parents tried to get for him, probably both have something more to do with it than his Christianity. I would guess his rabid hatred of atheists was simply a small part of his rabid hatred, period.

[dmallind]

10. So it matters which KIND of hatred he acted out?

Are you saying that hatred against atheists would or should not count as much as hatred against women?

[Occam Bandage]

14. Yes.

It does indeed make a difference. Hate crimes are intended to terrorize entire groups, which is why they are punished more harshly than most crimes. There is a different story and a different cause if he is trying to send a message to atheists in general than if he is stalking and then killing one particular woman.

[struggle4progress]

13. Whether it makes a difference to you will depend on whether you think that understanding

such events accurately will give us any chance of preventing future occurrences

[struggle4progress]

5. "... Peterson said her daughter was not romantically involved with Powell. Investigators said that

it appeared Powell made several advances but was turned down each time. Police said Asia McGowan was rehearsing a scene in the empty room at Henry Ford Community College when Powell barged in ..."
Campus Killer Speaks Out On YouTube
POSTED: Monday, April 13, 2009
UPDATED: 2:31 pm EDT April 13, 2009
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19165557/detail.html

So the basic story is unfortunately too familiar: young guy with mental problems gets fixation on girl, is rebuffed, gets gun, and then its murder-suicide time. It doesn't look like his attitudes towards atheism or evolution play any real role here, except as symptoms of his mental illness. But his brooding about black women may have played a role in the murder of Asia

[charlie]

6. OH SHIT

THAT guy. I've seen plenty of his triumphalist fuck-the-atheists videos, he was often linked to by other strident apologists and atheists. You could alway smell the crazy coming off of him, but he was no worse than some other YouTube loons. I'm shocked.

[ZombieHorde]

11. Sad story, his parents seemed devastated. nt

[struggle4progress]

12. Black Woman Murdered by Stalker Who Had Been Using Youtube and Facebook To Threaten Her

... A young woman in Detroit, Asia McGowan, was shot and killed by someone who had been leaving her nasty comments on her Youtube account and also had been stalking her on Facebook. This was someone she knew in real life-it was one of her classmates .... almost every woman I know that has an internet identity has received some sort of threatening, stalker-ish, troll-ish email, comment, forum posting, death threat ... http://www.feministing.com/archives/014810.html

April 13, 2009
"Black Women Don't Deserve Respect" : The Words of a Killer
... So disturbing were some of Powell's YouTube videos that another man with a YouTube site reported him to Detroit Police and got an e-mail back April 2 from someone in the office of Chief James Barren, according to a video posted on YouTube ... A spokeswoman could not confirm Sunday whether Detroit Police had been contacted about Powell ... In one Powell video, titled "Black Women Don't Deserve Respect," Powell denounces black women as sexually promiscuous ... http://www.blackgirlsrockit.com/2009/04/black-women-dont-deserve-respect-the-words-of-a-killer.html#comment-6a010535f582e8970b0115701921d9970b

YouTube Facebook Murder: Black Woman Slaughtered by Crazed Fellow YouTuber and Facebook Stalker - Detroit Police Ignored Warnings by YouTubers
http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/2009/04/youtube-facebook-murder-black-woman-slaughtered-by-crazed-fellow-youtuber-and-facebook-stalker-detroit-police-ignored-warnings-by-youtubers/

When obsession turns deadly: Men against Women
April 13, 4:35 PM
Darlena Taylor-Bonds
Detroit Top News Examiner
... The shooter was apparently linked to a on-line group called “ BMV.” BMV ~ BlackMenVent is well known on different social web-sites and represent men against women. The group has a radio station and web-site and often promote video’s that show negative behavior of men against women ... http://www.examiner.com/x-3284-Detroit-Top-News-Examiner~y2009m4d13-When-obsession-turns-deadly-Men-against-Women

[struggle4progress]

15. ... In other videos .. Powell said that women should stick by and be obedient to their husbands and

that he was contemplating suicide. "There's no point to me living anymore," he said in one. "I'm really thinking of killing myself, and I'm pretty much gonna do it, and I'm so scared." Then he said he doesn't have his 9-mm handguns any longer so he would have to use his shotgun, "and that's not gonna be pretty" ...

HENRY FORD COMMUNITY COLLEGE SHOOTING
Alleged shooter spread hatred, rants about atheists in online videos
By AMBER HUNT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 13, 2009
http://www.freep.com/article/20090413/NEWS02/90413033/?imw=Y

[struggle4progress]

16. First Step official discusses signs to look for with stalkers

By Jason Carmel Davis, Press & Guide Newspapers
PUBLISHED: April 15, 2009

With information surfacing in the aftermath of an apparent murder/suicide that took place at Dearborn's Henry Ford Community College (HFCC) that the shooter, 28-year-old Detroit resident Anthony Powell, had been stalking his victim, 20-year-old Asia McGowan of Ecorse, First Step Representative Theresa Bioze said the first thing that comes to her mind when she hears of such an incident is stalking or some form of domestic violence ...

Bioze cited recent reports she's seen blaming McGowan's death on photos and videos she placed on the social Web site, Facebook. She said this "victim blaming" has to stop now ...

http://www.pressandguide.com/stories/041509/loc_20090415005.shtml

[struggle4progress]

17. Police seek reasons for fatal incident

By Sean Delaney, Press & Guide Newspapers
PUBLISHED: April 15, 2009

Police say they've seized 28-year-old Anthony Powell's personal computer in an effort to determine what led the Detroit resident to shoot and kill .. Asia McGowan ...

"At this point, there are no indications of any sort of dating relationship," Leavens said Monday. "It appears they did communicate, but there's no evidence that it went beyond Facebook."

Powell was listed as one of McGowan's 800 friends on the site, but the victim's friends and family members say the shooter had a crush on McGowan and stalked her, recently sending her a disturbing message on the social networking Web site.

"There is some evidence that he suffered from some form of mental illness," Leavens said ...

http://www.pressandguide.com/stories/041509/loc_20090415003.shtml

[Taverner]

18. Once again, Faith KILLS

[humblebum]

19. This isn't a question of faith. It is a question of mental illness and fanaticism.

There is plenty of evidence on YouTube of atheists going through very similar rants.

[ecstatic]

20. I just learned of this story today

It's very sad, but I'm not really worried about his rants as much as I'm wondering how people should deal with friends/family who they feel might be mentally unstable. I know several people who I wouldn't be surprised if they snapped like that. I want to help, but at the same time, I don't want to be the next victim.