By ,
Published July 21, 2016
A black nationalist group on Thursday reportedly distanced itself from the gunman who earlier declared allegiance to the organization.
The Los Angeles Times interviewed the 71-year-old son of the Washitaw Nation’s founder. Fredrix Washington told the paper that the gunman, Gavin Eugene Long, is “not one of us.”
Washington added, “I don’t even want to say his name.”
Long, who killed three law enforcement officers in Louisiana before a SWAT team killed him, purportedly described his actions as a "necessary evil" in a self-described, handwritten manifesto. An Ohio man said Long emailed the message to him less than an hour before the shootings.
Washington went on: “Black lives matter, blue lives matter. I’m a humanitarian; all lives matter to me. This guy didn’t just kill white people, he killed a black cop. So how can he be related to us?”
Long, whose last known address was in Kansas City, Mo., carried out the attack on his 29th birthday. Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism for the Anti-Defamation League, said there was no information linking Long, who was black, to any known extremist group or movement, but the ADL and others were investigating Long's possible use of aliases.
The ADL considers the Washitaw Nation an extremist group, but Washington denied the charge. The Los Angeles Times pointed out that investigators into the deadly shooting have not tied the group--founded in the early 1990s-- to the deadly shooting.
Members of the group believe they are descendants of Moorish Africans who lived in North America prior to white settlers, the report said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
https://www.foxnews.com/us/black-nationalist-group-reportedly-distances-itself-from-baton-rouge-killer