On Wednesday morning, a student at Antioch High School in Nashville walked into the school’s cafeteria and fatally shot a student before injuring another student and then turning the gun on himself. It was yet another senseless gun-related tragedy — and the second high-profile school shooting in Nashville within the last two years — but, this time, the deceased shooter’s profile might surprise some people, although his ideology shouldn’t.
Antioch student Solomon Henderson, 17, the teen identified by Metro Nashville Police as the shooter, was Black. However, if the alleged manifesto he left behind, which has been making the rounds on social media, proves to be authentic, he wished he wasn’t.
From The Tennessean:
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a 2:30 p.m. news conference there are online “materials” that are factoring into the police’s investigation. “As to a motive, we’re looking into that,” Drake said. “There are some materials on the internet that we’re looking at that’s under the investigation.”
A nearly 300-page document posted on the X social media platform contains numerous selfies of what appears to be the shooter with various alt-right paraphernalia scattered between statements against “race mixing,” wishes to “take revenge” on society, statements praising Adolf Hitler and pages of explicit photos from previous school shootings.
Social media accounts linked in the document and scattered across many platforms including X, Kick, TikTok and more focused heavily on “groyper” content — a nickname used by many online white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups — as well as “incel” content, a name referring to young men who claim to be “involuntarily celibate” and espouse incredibly violent misogynistic views.
– The Antioch High School Shooter Solomon Henderson Made a bunch of references to other Shooters Taking photos of himself imitating their poses and Even dressing up as them. #AntiochHighSchool #NashvilleHighSchool #antiochhighschoolstrong pic.twitter.com/ekuYHQ2bLr
— World In Last 24hrs (@world24x7hr) January 23, 2025
#UPDATE : Nashville school shooter, Solomon Henderson’s manifesto outlines how he admired Hitler, expressed hatred for Jews, and was ‘ashamed to be black’#AntiochHighSchool #Shooting #NashvilleHighSchool #Tennessee #Nashville #SchoolShooting #SolomonHenderson pic.twitter.com/7KXBzXObAV
— upuknews (@upuknews1) January 23, 2025
Authorities are still investigating whether the written manifesto purported to be authored by Solomon is authentic, but if it is legitimate, it reveals that the shooter was a self-loathing Black conservative who referred to himself as Uncle Ruckus, said he “was ashamed to be Black,” railed against what he called “n*gger culture” and declared that “Candace Owens influenced me above all each time she spoke,” according to WTVF. He also allegedly mentioned other prominent right-wing talking heads like loud and proud white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who, by the way, almost seems proud to have his name dropped by the shooter.
>a black teen brought a gun to school and shot people
>he mentioned Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes in his racist manifesto pic.twitter.com/iBVWtJ61cR— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) January 23, 2025
“Our analysts located a sprawling manifesto full of anti-Black content, references to accelerationism and antisemitism,” said Carla Hill, senior director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. “It also plagiarized from various far-right manifestos and publications, including Terrorgram Collective and a manifesto by Matthew Harris.” (Harris is a former UCLA lecturer who was arrested in 2022 after circulating an 800-page manifesto titled “Death Sentences” threatening violence against 35 individuals.)
Again, it’s unclear, at this point, where investigators are in authenticating the alleged manifesto, but if it’s legitimate, it is yet another example of white supremacist extremism turning deadly, regardless of the shooter’s race.
SEE ALSO:
Georgia School Shooting: News Outlets Initially Misidentified Black Victim As Murder Suspect