Posted on 06/29/2015 11:43:10 PM PDT by Freedom of Speech Wins
Who Is Photographer Austin Rich & Why Was He Arrested For The Charleston Church Shooting?
ALICIA LU
@ALICIAQL
11 DAYS AGO NEWS
Charleston, South Carolina, and the entire country has been left devastated after a gunman entered the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night and opened fire, killing nine people. The suspect has since been identified by authorities as Dylann Storm Roof, 21, who was found some 200 miles away in North Carolina on Thursday. However, before the intense manhunt led to his arrest, another man was taken into custody. Photographer Austin Rich was arrested in connection with the Charleston shooting and detained before being released hours later. It was a case of mistaken identity, but a traumatizing ordeal nonetheless.
Rich had been in the area near the Emanuel AME Church interviewing locals for a photo project called 1,000 Days of Talking With Strangers when police apprehended him at a gas station because of his physical description. Rich recounted the entire episode on his Facebook page:
Tonight as many of you may already know, I was detained as a suspect for the shooting that took place in downtown Charleston. I want to assure everyone that I am safe and innocent. I was interviewing strangers at the scene when I was mistaken as the shooter because of my grey t-shirt, black pants and tan shoes . I gave them the details of where I was and who I was with. They asked several questions, checked my phone records and told me I was clear to go. I am thankful for the professionalism of the officers on duty and have a tremendous amount of respect for them as well.
After realizing Rich was not the suspect they were looking for, the officers released him at around 11:30 p.m.
Rich happened to be on day 458 of his photo project, which was inspired by and is similar in concept and format to Brandon Stantons Humans of New York website, and it will certainly be an outlier in his 1,000-day project. Rich started his journey last January and has been interviewing one or two strangers every day in Charleston. What started as a year-long project titled 365 Days of Talking to Strangers was apparently extended into 1,000 days.
http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/video/14725502/
“Will the real Austin Rich please stand up.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/charleston-photographer-arrested-church-shooting-article-1.2262169?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fnews%2Fnational+%28News%2FNational%29
They look like different people to me at least. The media may change these pictures or links later too.
My question is why are we caring about this? Seems to me the police were doing due diligence and that this person was treated fairly and professionally (as indicated by his own facebook account). Is this supposed to be some kind of news because a journalist got swept up because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
I just don’t see the hubbub here.
I'm starting to wonder who doesn't see a pattern here of what a perverted killer "looks like" with these mass killings. With a lack of on-the-scene coverage at the church and at the Waco Biker shootout, well, I have questions.
Arched eyebrows, page boy haircut, and killers... you may be on to something.
“I was detained as a suspect for the shooting that took place in downtown Charleston.”
If he was finger printed and booked as a suspect (no charges)
he’s still in the system. Now every time the fuzz runs his
ID this will come up and so will his chances of going to
jail. He now has a permanent police record.
“Is this supposed to be some kind of news because a journalist got swept up because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?”............
You have deciphered the reason. By bringing attention to this “story”, the media is somehow trying to show how they get mistreated by the police. Unfortunately for the media, it turned out good, as it should have.
We're on the same wavelength. "Hey, guys. Look at me, I'm innocent and free."
Touch of Perez Hilton.
Went and got a buzz cut today so I’m O.K.
It looks like they are showing two different people as Austin Rich, kind of a big mistake.
My concern here is that there appear to be two different Austin Richs in the pictures they are showing. They aren’t keeping their stories straight.
Videos on the net of someone else getting detained by police there too. Guy running through the woods for example there. I am no expert on that incident. There is a guy named Wolfgang Halbig out there who one can find stuff on on the internet who doesn’t believe the official story there on that event.
Lone people in a lot of these events when in a lot of them originally there were reports of more people involved. That is a pattern I have noticed. We see victims families forgiving the arrested person here in Charleston. Would think the authorities would be more interested in questioning the arrested person regarding whether there was involvement by others than we at least in the public are being shown. Confrontation with victim’s families in a hearing looks strange, and appears to the public at least as if it has taken preference over investigation. Also how come the press doesn’t even know if the arrested person has a lawyer here. We were given a lot of conflicting stories on how the arrested person got the weapon too. I mean how bad can the journalists be, again and again. These are the people who give us the news.
Smart move. I had already dialed 9-1- just as you posted.
so the hidden insinuation is that a loner, who generally fits a pattern begun, say, in a school shooting, is set up as a murderer whose mental state weakened the lines of reality to him and thus is (possibly) framed as a mass murderer.\Using tried and true catchwords and phrases, is judged guilty by the media while the operatives who did the deed are back in the shadows. The pivotal crime,so heinous and without reason, accelerates a rush to justus, and guarantees more and more backlash against people who have no access to the legal system given the suspicious nature they exhibit. What lawyer in the nation would take this case given the perimeters it is framed in. EvenI doubt his innocence. And yet, when I first saw the picture of the bad haircut and high cheekbones, I thought it was the disgraced woman who claimed to be black so she could rise to power in the spokane naabp, only dressed like a looney white boy.
The description fit. Wearing a sweat shirt in temperatures of 100 degrees of that week, is very suspicious on it’s own. But this guy is no victim. The police were doing their jobs and a very fine job at that
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.