A Republican activist who has been a reliable donor to Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — despite a racist tweet that put him on the outs with DeSantis’ predecessor, Rick Scott — shot a woman and then himself in the parking lot of a Palm Beach County restaurant, according to sheriff’s deputies.

The activist, 72-year-old Steve Alembik, died. The woman, wounded in the back and arm, survived when she ran into the restaurant bleeding and was rushed to the hospital.

The shooting happened at a Burgerfi outlet in Delray Beach a week ago Monday, although Alembik’s identity wasn’t revealed until last Friday in the Boca Raton News. The wounded victim was believed to be his wife.

Over the past 20 years, Alembik, gave more than $200,000 in political contributions, mainly to Republicans, including thousands of dollars to both DeSantis and Donald Trump. The founder of a Boca Raton digital marketing company, the Democrat-turned-Republican earned notoriety in 2018 by referring to former President Barack Obama as a “f******* Muslim n*****” in a post on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter.

  • Parabola@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “Activist”. What idiot wrote this? If they were brown it would say terrorist.

    This redneck fuck was a terrorist. Good riddance.

    • Nougat@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Because everyone is afraid of what the lunatic fringe will do is already doing. Nobody wants to appear responsible for escalating the violence.

      This demands repeating:

      Politicians, media, prosecutors, judges – There is already violence. There will be more violence. Not if, when. The sooner you stop thinking we can go back the way we came, the quicker we'll be done with all this. The only way out is through.

    • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      He also would have been described as a "responsible gun owner" 24 hours ago since the gun was likely legally purchased and he hadn't lost control of his emotions and killed anyone with it yet.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It's rare to see someone rightfully point out the fact that all bad guys with a gun were once good guys until they suddenly… You know… Weren't.

        • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          And then magically, they don’t count, despite buying the same guns, from the same stores, with the same checks then carrying it around under the same laws and storing it with the same optional safety.

          It’s a perfect setup. Responsible gun owners can never commit crimes. Maybe it’s time we all started calling the murderers committing crimes with legal guns “former responsible gun owner so and so”.

    • DigitalTraveler42@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Technically he is brown, I really don't know where the line is anymore for who's a terrorist and who's not according to the Peter Griffin skin shade scale, but it's seemed to devolve into "if he's a far right person then he must not be a terrorist" because you can't say it's conservatives because Jihadists are conservatives, then you have Hindu nationalists, the line really only seems to be "Donald Trump fan" not a terrorist, all others, terrorist.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        He looks pretty white to me.

        https://thethaiger.com/world/news/560093/

        Also, disgusting how the right keeps talking about what an inspiring and great guy he was. Known for racist tweets towards Obama. Shoots wife several times in the back, in a parking lot. Oh but…

        “The tragedy surrounding Steve’s suicide has shocked everyone, and as details come out, people will probably be judgmental,” far-right activist Laura Loomer wrote in a post. “I just know that Steve was a kind man who had personal struggles like everyone else.”

        It was an attempted murder in a fucking parking lot. Potentially in front of kids. Potentially a bystander gets hit.

        Then he offs himself in public.

        What an asshole.

        • DigitalTraveler42@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          According to this site:

          https://forebears.io/surnames/alembik

          The biggest concentration of folks with the surname Alembik are in Israel, where the brown people aren't just Muslim but also Jewish, Jews are already usually not treated as white in general, although there are those of us like myself who are pale, blond, and blue eyed, but my Jewish ancestry is Russian in origin, really makes it easier to not be hassled for my mother and grandmother's religion, although it would be much nicer if Nazis and others didn't just blindly hate an ethnic/religious group.

          Anyways, I've seen pics of this guy looking on the brown side and pics of this guy where he looks white, either way, doesn't matter because he's all dickhead and the world is a better place without him.

          • treefrog@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I don't know. I think shooting your wife and then offing yourself where children might witness it is more of an asshole move than a dickhead move.

            Anyway, he's white enough that the press wouldn't call him a terrorist, hoodlum, etc. I think that was the parent comment's point and I was half expecting a black dude or mixed anyway when I went to find a photo.

            But yeah, not every Jewish person can pass as white I know. And I agree the world is better off without his energy in it.