Accused Midtown Parking Garage Shooter Confesses
The former security guard took the stand Wednesday and said he was upset at the way white people treat black people. He said his mind was blank as he fired the shots.
Nkosi Thandiwe, the former security guard on trial for the 2011 Midtown shooting that killed one woman and left another paralyzed, took the stand in his own defense Wednesday and confessed to the shooting.
WGCL-TV reported that on Day 2 of the trial Thandiwe testified that he snapped and was upset about the way white people treated black people.
The news station’s reporter, Tony McNary, was at the Fulton County Courthouse and tweeted Wednesday,
“Man on trial for Midtown murder and shooting two other women said his spiritual views about the world and how whites treated blacks changed during his last 2yrs in college.”
Thandiwe had pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges connected to the July 2011 shooting spree at the Proscenium building that left Brittney Watts dead at the scene, injured Tiffany Ferenczy in the leg and paralyzed Lauren Garcia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Thandiwe said his mind was a blank as he shot Watts:
“It was almost like watching myself in action,” Thandiwe told a Fulton County jury in the second day of his trial. “I tell her to get out of (her) car. She screams. I fire. She drops to the ground.”
Thandiwe testified that he got angry at his supervisor earlier in the day and "almost" pulled his gun on him, the AJC reported.
Last April, Garcia and Ferenczy, along with Brian Watts, whose young wife was killed that mid-summer afternoon, all filed separate lawsuits against Allied Barton Security Services and the owners of the building in Fulton County Superior Court. Allied Barton employed Thandiwe as a security guard at the building and the complaints claim negligence on the part of the company.
WSB-TV reported last spring that after examining the 43-page lawsuit, it appeared that race may have played a role in the triple-shooting rampage.
According to WSB at the time, the lawsuit said the accused shooter, who is black, “demonstrated an intensely negative attitude toward another race, which was unnamed.”
The news outlet went on to report that weeks before the shooting, Thandiwe had been involved in an altercation with a building visitor, as WSB said he “assailed a visiting courier with racial epithets and had to be physically restrained by company personnel from striking and causing harm to visitors.”
The defendant reportedly bought the Glock semi-automatic handgun that was used in the shootings just over two weeks before the incident. The shootings took place in the parking garage of the building that Thandiwe was assigned to protect.
Judge Kelly A. Lee of Fulton County Superior Court ordered a mental evaluation for Thandiwe in November 2011. Lee ruled the following spring that Thandiwe was capable of comprehending what was happening during a trial.
Check back for continuing updates.
See also:
Testimony Begins in Murder Trial of Former Midtown Security Guard
Proscenium building shooting suspect ruled mentally competent to stand trial
Alleged Midtown Shooter Pleads Not Guilty
Midtown shooting suspect loses lawyer, has trial date set
Did accused Midtown shooter target victims for being white?
Police Arrest Midtown Building's Security Guard in Fatal Shooting
Woman Paralyzed in Midtown Shooting Released from Spinal Center
Danno Reeves
1:26 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
and now white people like him better? Get used to it, not everybody likes you no matter who you are
ATLgoofball
2:14 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wow. This is truly sad. Feel sorry for the victims and their families and the suspects' family.
And what's up with the security company letting him back after the prior incident?
F**K!!!!!
Chris H
2:26 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Pull up your pants, stay in school and get a legitimate job like everyone else and most white people won't have a problem with you.
Trollie Fingers
3:02 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
I think he mistook race conflict for class conflict. He's a parking lot attendant and he's surrounded by suburbanite sheltered white kids with limited cultural or cross class exposure - ie they want to hang out with people just like themselves.
None of this makes it right, or understandable or is even a defense. I'm just saying he had a Taxi Driver - Travis Bickle reaction and now is unfortunately lumping it into a "simple" race situation. He was just an outsider to a world he got a daily glimpse of and was always going to be. If he was a 50 year white guy parking lot attendant he would have probably experienced the same thing. Eew, you're creepy, take my parking card and don't talk to me...
AndrewD
3:02 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Will he be charged with a hate crime as well?
Trollie Fingers
3:13 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
In this case I would think so, since he went ahead and claimed racial motivation.
DianaD
8:53 am on Thursday, January 31, 2013
There is no hate crime in the state of GA
Julio Juarez
4:39 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Where is the national outcry for these dead and crippled white people, gunned down by a racist savage who *admits* that race was the reason he killed and mained. Compare and contrast with Treyvno Martin, whose family got a call from the president. It's time for non-blacks to stand up to and call out the double standard.
Chris H
4:57 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The problem is if you say anything you are labeled a racists. Just like you can't say the N word.
Urbanist
1:06 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
Yes Chris - just like that. It's so wrong to label someone who uses the "n" word as a racist. Idiot.
Tom
1:25 am on Thursday, January 31, 2013
He is such a loser. Now trying to get off on last minute insanity...hate hate ate. Marcus Black AJC journalist Garner look at his coverage of this case....so unbiased...ridiculous...this City wants this to go away...but it happened. Deal with it...and truthfully.
N
1:25 am on Thursday, January 31, 2013
Another reason to stop the POLITICALLY CORRECT bs and tell it like it is!!!
Andre Dickens
9:52 am on Thursday, January 31, 2013
This guy should go to jail for a very very long time. Premeditated murder. Attempted murder. Abuse of power as a security guard. Hate Crime. Semi-auto handgun usage also bad. So lock him up for a long time. As for the folks on here talking about Treyvon and non-black outrage, you should have outrage. I'm black and I am outraged. White, black, latino, asian, etc all should be outraged at any fool that kills someone else for no reason at all or for a racially motivated reason. I am outraged at him, Zimmerman and the Newtown fool and all the rest who have killed innocent, helpless people. But going around making this a black vs white issue is just as stupid and irresponsible as he was. I'm just now hearing that this guy's actions were racially motivated so it increases my disgust of him but really I thought he should go to jail based on the other evidence. Anyway, start a march and riot to bring awareness against black killers of white folks. That's on you to do. Me, I'm waiting on his 20+ year jail sentence.
Henry Batten
12:10 pm on Thursday, January 31, 2013
Thanks, Andre. Well spoken.
JM Hurricane
1:06 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
I would march and riot but, unfortunately, it conflicts with my tee time.