Conviction of an LGBTQ Hater
According to the report released by CNN News Report, John Russell Howald was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison because of his federal hate crime and firearm charges related to his hatred and getting rid of the LGBTQ in the community.
In February, Howald was arrested and convicted for shooting using an AK-style rifle outside the victim’s home who openly identified herself as lesbian. The woman was inside her home during the shooting incident.
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According to Police Report
Some neighbors and residents who knew the characteristics of Howald stalled and spotted him long enough and reported to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. According to the recorded videos released, Howald was reported yelling and exhausting his hatred toward the LGBTQ community while firing more rounds of the same riffle with his intent of cleaning the LGBTQ from his town.
According to the report, when the respondents came, Howald started to point his rifle at the responding deputy. Just as before the shootout began, he immediately ran to the surrounding hills. On the following day, Howald was arrested armed with a loaded pistol and knife. In his car, officers found an AR-style rifle and a revolver. While in his office there found an AK-style rifle, ammunition, and a hunting rifle, stated by the prosecutor.
Howals’ conviction and imprisonment were announced during pride month and comes with a Human Rights Campaign declaring a national state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community in the United States.
The rumored threats face by millions of the LGBTQ community are not just plainly speculations, they are real and even proven tangible and dangerous. In different many cases, people against LGBTQ are resulting to violence, forcing families to change their identities, and hide their natural well-being, others even flee from their homes in search of a safer community and state, triggering homophobia and transphobia and putting their safety at risk, a statement from Kelly Robinson, president of the LGBTQ.
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