Nebraska shooting that wounded 7 immigrants may be racially motivated, police say

A shooting on Friday in Crete, Nebraska, that wounded seven Guatemalan immigrants, including four children, may have been racially motivated, police said, adding that the suspect later killed himself.

The suspect identified by police as Billy Booth opened fire from his house in Crete with a shotgun on Friday afternoon.

Crete Police Chief Gary Young said there was a report in May that the suspect had told the victims to go back to where they came from and to “speak English.”

Anti-Latino hate crimes in the U.S. have gone up in recent years amid rhetoric surrounding immigration from Latin American countries. Such hate crimes increased by 2.8% from 2021 to 2022 and by 41% from 2020 to 2021, according to data shared with media by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

Read more: Reuters