HATEFUL CONDUCT: What happened to this Black Airbnb guest shouldn’t happen to anyone
A suspect in the shooting of an unarmed Black man walking to a grocery store near the Airbnb he was renting, is finally being arraigned. 66-year-old Mark Waters, who is White, shot the victim when his back was turned.
Prosecutors say the assault was unprovoked.
“Everyone should be safe walking to the store,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “We will not tolerate such senseless and violent acts in this county. We wish the victim a speedy recovery and will make sure he receives justice for this brutal assault,” according to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office.
On October 2nd, the 21-year-old Airbnb guest left for the store before being approached by Waters, who was carrying a black handgun. A single shot was fired as the victim tried to run away — hitting him in the leg.
San Jose police officers arrived on the scene and rendered first aid to the victim before going to the assailant’s home. The shooting was captured on video by a neighbor.
Multiple firearms were seized in a later search of Waters’ home prior to his arrest and booked into the county jail.
The District Attorney is considering adding a hate crime charge to the violent attack, local Fox affiliate KTVU reported.
Santa Clara County DA Rosen recently made headlines after announcing his office was deactivating its official Twitter page to the rise in hate speech on the platform. SCCDA’s actions follow in the footsteps of San Jose City Councilmember Dev Davis, who left the social media site two weeks prior.
“I didn’t feel comfortable supporting an egotistical billionaire bent on being the world’s foremost chaos agent,” Davis told San José Spotlight. “I want no part of a platform that ‘verifies’ accounts based on how much they pay rather than actually proving they are who they say they are.”
“I ask other district attorneys around our nation to join me in standing against hatred and bigotry by leaving Twitter,” Rosen said. “As American prosecutors, we speak with one voice—against crime, violence, greed, and hatred. We don’t need 280 characters or a billionaire’s app to say, ‘Bigotry has no home in the land of the free and the home of the brave,'” San José Spotlight wrote.
While a motive in the Airbnb guest’s shooting has yet to be confirmed, the District Attorney’s office is taking the incident seriously. Local police haven’t released further information, nor did they publish a release on the shocking assault.
Waters is charged with personal use of a firearm and felony assault with a semi-automatic firearm resulting in great bodily injury.
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