What’s Wrong With Telling The Truth?

Twenty two year old Muslim Michael Ford worked at a Safeway distribution center in Denver, Colorado. On Sunday, June 25, he went in and started shooting people and setting fires inside the center. He shot and killed Mauricio DeHaro, a thirty three year old father of two, ages 4 and 6.

Ford also shot and wounded Denver Police officer Derick Dominguez in the hip. Dominguez is in serious condition. He also shot Mark Moran, who is in serious condition, and John Mendoza, who is in fair condition. One other man was shot but was released from the hospital.

KUSA Channel 9 news reported that all five workers that Ford shot worked in the same department as the shooter. Jeff Stroh, a spokesman for Safeway said the company had not received any complaints about Ford, or complaints from Ford.

The various news outlets in Denver all seem intent on subduing the motive for the shootings. For example:

The headline for the Denver Post story reads: Shooting spree baffles those close to 22-year-old Ford.

The KUSA Channel 9 News headline says: Officials search for motive in warehouse shooting.

However, his younger sister was interviewed by KUSA channel 9 and said that Ford was upset because people “were making fun of his religion at work”. She also said: "I don't know what happened to him yesterday. It was like everything changed. He told me that Allah was going to make a choice and it was going to be good and told me people at his job was making fun of his religion and he didn't respect that."

The Rocky Mountain News reported that Safeway employee Debbie Richmeier, said she and Ford’s other co-workers never saw the attack coming. Richmeier is quoted by the News as saying: "One minute, he says, 'Hi, how are you?' and then one minute later he's apparently deciding which one of us dudes he's going to shoot. We could have never seen this coming from him in particular."

Richmeier also said that the other employees never made fun of Islam.

The Rocky Mountain News also quoted Richmeier as saying: "The group of people he shot, we did not know Michael Ford was any (certain religion). Nobody knew he had switched to Muslim. Nobody would have cared."

So what’s wrong with telling the truth? Michael Ford shot 5 people, killing one, because he was a Muslim, and they were not.

This type of attack is an all too common tale in the world of Islam.