Terrorist says he targeted Family Research Council because of SPLC website
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| English: American politician Tony Perkins. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The footage, which FRC obtained from the FBI, shows interrogators asking Floyd Lee Corkins II how he decided to target the pro-family organization for his August shooting rampage.
"This organization...how did you find it earlier?" an investigator asks Corkins. "Did you look it up online?"
“Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups," Corkins replies. "I found them online, did a little research, went to the website - stuff like that.”
The admission outraged FRC President Tony Perkins.
"The SPLC's reckless labeling has led to devastating consequences," Perkins said. "Because of its 'hate group' labeling, a deadly terrorist had a guidemap to FRC and other organizations. Our team is still dealing with the fallout of the attack, that was intended to have a chilling effect on organizations that are simply fighting for their values."
Corkins, who volunteered for an LGBT community center in Virginia, entered the building on August 15 with nearly 100 rounds of ammunition, 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches, and a list of four socially conservative political groups he intended to liquidate.
"The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has now been linked to domestic terrorism in federal court, should put an immediate stop to its practice of labeling organizations that oppose their promotion of homosexuality," Perkins added.
Elsewhere in the confession, Corkins told federal agents he intended to "kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-fil-A sandwiches in victims' faces, and kill the guard" in an effort to "make a statement against the people who work in that building."
Corkins injured one FRC employee, Leo Johnson. Johnson's actions in subduing Corkins despite his injuries prevented a far greater massacre.
One of the other groups on the as-yet undisclosed list, the Traditional Values Coalition, is also branded a "hate group" on the SPLC website. When President Andrea Lafferty contacted the Obama administration for protection, the Obama administration made no effort to defend the group or its employees.
Government prosecutors have asked that Corkins received 45 years in prison for perpetrating an act of terrorism against the Christian conservative cause.
“Although the defendant largely failed to bring about the violence he sought, he was still able to accomplish one of his objectives — that is, to use acts of violence to terrorize and intimidate those within the District of Columbia and the United States who did not share his political beliefs and views,” they wrote in their filing.
In February, Corkins reversed his not guilty plea and confessed to three charges: one count of committing an act of terrorism with the intent to kill, one count of intent to kill while armed, and one federal count of crossing state lines with guns and ammunition. Seven additional charges were dropped.
He had faced a maximum sentence of 70 years.
"In a civil society, shutting down debate is not how reasonable people and organizations operate," Perkins added. "Intimidating and bullying others shreds the 'ordered liberty' of which our Founders wrote and for which they advocated, and places all of us in jeopardy of losing our sacred rights as militant extremists claim the public square exclusively for themselves."
Judge Richard W. Roberts will sentence Corkins on Monday, April 29.
