'Hero': Latest school shooter celebrated as followers float copycat plans
When 17-year-old Solomon Henderson fatally shot a fellow student and then took his own life at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, last month, he left behind a diary full of provocative poses as a kind of press kit.
Henderson's associates in an online subculture organized around inceldom, neo-Nazi accelerationism, and edgy memes immediately set to work incorporating images of him spliced together with white supremacist symbols and set to music for tribute videos.
“Rest in Peace Black Incel King,” one of the users wrote in a caption for the video, posted less than 24 hours after Henderson’s attack.
Another hailed him as a “hero” while positioning his image alongside other school shooters and mass murderers that he had idolized.
The tribute videos follow a depressing script that the 17-year-old Henderson had outlined. Henderson had cited an 18-year-old named Arda Küçükyetim, who had stabbed five people near a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey, as an inspiration. In his diary, Henderson reflected on a statement in Küçükyetim’s manifesto to the effect that the digital legacy of each perpetrator would “motivate” future attacks
A month before opening fire on the cafeteria at his high school, Henderson had expressed appreciation for the fact that Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old who killed another student, a teacher and herself at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, weeks earlier had followed two of his X accounts. In a comment under Rupnow’s X post indicating she was planning an attack, Henderson had urged her to “livestream it.”
Based on his online interactions with Rupnow, at least a half-dozen X users flagged Henderson’s account, while urging the FBI to investigate. The FBI has previously declined to comment to Raw Story on whether agents followed up on the tips.
As the cycle of online incitement continues, a new cohort of extremists are celebrating the murder-suicide that Henderson carried out — while signaling plans for future attacks.
The aftermath of Henderson’s attack comes at a time when the FBI, which prides itself on being “the lead investigative agency on terrorism matters,” is undergoing massive upheaval since President Trump took office, with the purge of its top leadership rung and review of thousands of agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Three of Henderson’s associates who followed his X account made posts on the platform hinting at plans to carry out attacks, commit suicide or a combination of the two on Jan. 20, two days before Henderson’s strike. Raw Story is not identifying the accounts to avoid amplifying their messages.
One of the associates, a Portuguese national, posted a document entitled “An Incel Manifesto” on Jan. 20, and in another post on the same day wrote, “I’m a first-person shooter.”
Raw Story has learned that the Portuguese national’s identity has been reported to Europol, a European Union agency that combats international and organized crime, cybercrime and terrorism.
Another associate, an 18-year-old college student who describes himself as a “Mexican living in California,” published a Google Docs link, but didn't make it shareable.
“Goodbye everyone,” he wrote in the post.
In the weeks leading up to the post, the associate had written, “We should kill every single person on the planet. He posted a link to a video about Elliott Rodger, considered the original incel mass murderer following a 2018 attack in Canada.
“It’s time,” he captioned the post.
Less is known about a third associate, but one of the few personal details he has shared is that his first name and surname are from the Indian subcontinent. Another X user has claimed that this associate is 14 years old.
The Portuguese national and the associate with the Indian name both posted photos that eerily imitated an image posted by Rupnow hours before she opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School.
It’s an A-OK hand sign positioned between the legs of the subject facing downward. Henderson had incorporated Rupnow’s photo in his diary while describing the hand gesture as a “white power symbol” associated with Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist mass murderer who slaughtered 51 Muslim worshipers in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.
Before carrying out his attack at Antioch High School on Jan. 22, Henderson posted his own version of the photo.
The associate with the Indian name added a chilling note to his Jan. 20 post.
“This one’s for Hugo Jackson and Arda Küçükyetim,” he wrote. “Goodbye everyone.”
Jackson, a 15-year-old student, went on stabbing rampage at his school in Eslöv, Sweden, seriously injuring a teacher, in 2021.
The FBI did not respond to an email from Raw Story inquiring into whether the agency has taken any steps to investigate or disrupt potential attacks by Henderson’s associates, or alerted their counterparts in foreign countries.
“I think they certainly are interested in trying to stop them,” Carla Hill, the director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told Raw Story. “We routinely share intel that we find alarming with them, and they express appreciation. If there’s not an arrest, they’re seizing guns through red flag laws.”
While the FBI failed to stop Henderson’s attack, the agency did intervene to disrupt an allegedly planned mass shooting by a 20-year-old man in California who is said to have communicated online with Rupnow.
An order issued by a judge in California on Dec. 17 reportedly stated that “during an FBI interview, [Alexander] Paffendorf admitted to the FBI agents that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building. FBI agents saw the messages from Paffendorf to Rupnow.”
The Carlsbad Police Department filed an emergency protective order for gun violence against Paffendorf in San Diego County Superior Court in December, and he has a hearing scheduled for April 4. A deputy city attorney reportedly told the court last month that there was a criminal investigation underway, but it was “not within” the Carlsbad Police Department. The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment to NBC News 7 San Diego. There are currently no criminal charges against Paffendorf.
The Henderson associate who self-identified as a “Mexican living in California” resurfaced two days after his Jan. 20 farewell post, explaining: “Failed my attempt so I’m back now.” His return coincided with the attack by Henderson, whom he dismissed in another post as the “least interesting shooter ever.”
As an indication of how online extremists obtain clout from demonstrating a connection with shooters but also appear to feel threatened by competition from them, the Portuguese associate first praised Henderson as a “Black incel king,” and then later complained that Henderson had ruined “all the plans and months of work” by mentioning him in his manifesto and “interacting” with him.
As a result, the associate said, he had been “banned” on social media platforms, and his manifesto had been removed from one after being flagged as “hate speech.” The associate agreed with another X user who disparaged Henderson, while using a racial slur and charging that he “just framed the incel community for clout.”
Since the Antioch High School shooting, at least two of Henderson’s associates have expressed continued interest in harming others and themselves.
In late January, the California associate hosted an X space with 25 other users under the heading, “1stDARKMGTOW MEETING OF TFD.” “MGTOW” stands for “men going their own way,” while “TFD” is an acronym for “total foid death.” “Foid” is an incel slur against women, combining the words “female” and “humanoid.”
The Portuguese national has made posts referencing the white supremacist mass murder carried out by Payton Gendron in Buffalo, NY in 2022 and the late eco-terrorist Ted Kaczynski, along with gory anime clips depicting women blowing their heads off with shotguns.
In recent weeks, he has talked about trying to join the military in his country.
“I think it would be an easy way to have access to a gun,” he wrote. “Let’s see what happens.”
This story is the final installment in a three-part series exploring how violent online subcultures provide the opportunity for teenagers attracted to accelerationism and inceldom to network and encourage one another to carry out terrorist attacks. Read the first two stories here and here.
