Jacksonville Madden Tournament Shooting
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Overview
Jacksonville Madden Tournament Shooting was a mass shooting that occurred at a tournament for the football game Madden held at the GLHF Game Bar at the Jacksonville Landing indoor marketplace in Jacksonville, Florida in late August 2018. Three people, including the suspect, were killed in the shooting and an additional 11 suffered non-fatal injuries.
Background
At approximately 1:30 p.m. on August 26th, 2018, professional gamer David Katz reportedly opened fire at the venue of a tournament for the game Madden NFL 19 after losing a game. Audio of the shooting was recorded on the Twitch live stream for the event (shown below). The shooter claimed the lives of professional gamers Elijah Clayton and Taylor Robertson and injured 11 others before committing suicide.
Twitch livestream of Madden NFL tournament qualifier in Jacksonville broadcasts mass shooting, horrific aftermath [video disturbing]https://t.co/kKcpNuGFRi pic.twitter.com/98FwkWMfOp
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) August 26, 2018
Developments
Online Reaction
That day, YouTuber Count Dankula tweeted that the shooter should be referred to as "Bitch Boy" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 23,500 likes and 5,700 retweets.[1]
The same day, Twitter user Tariq Nasheed tweeted that the shooter was a "white identity extremist," claiming that the first victim who was shot was Black (shown below, left).[9] Meanwhile, Twitter user @RSSLiam[10] tweeted a call for additional gun control legislation (shown below, right).
Also on August 28th, posts about the incident reached the front page of various subreddits, including /r/news,[2] /r/gaming,[3] /r/KotakuInAction,[4] /r/nfl,[5] /r/Madden[6] and /r/smashbros[7] subreddits.
The following day, YouTuber Mister Metokur uploaded a video about the shooting titled "David Katz: The Esports Ebitch," which mocked those who failed to investigate claims before tweeting about or reporting on the incident (shown below).
Suspect
That evening, Twitter user @WJXTvic posted a clip of Katz from the Twitch stream of the event (shown below).
VIDEO of 24-year-old David Katz, the Baltimore gamer believed to have been the shooter at the Jacksonville Landing. Sheriff says he killed himself. Listen to how announcers describe him. pic.twitter.com/YkiAokUBHg
— Vic Micolucci WJXT (@WJXTvic) August 27, 2018
Ravenchamps
Meanwhile, rumors began circulating the Katz' Reddit username was ravenchamps.[8] On August 27th, Redditor vorpalsword92 posted a screenshot of ravenchamps referring to Trump supporters as "trumptard" to /r/The_Donald[12] (shown below).
On August 28th, ravenchamps participated in an ask me anything post on /r/AMA, revealing that the account was not owned by the deceased shooter.[13]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – @CountDankulaTV
[5] Reddit – /r/KotakuInAction
[7] Reddit – /r/smashbros
[8] Reddit – /u/ravenchamps
[9] Twitter – tariqnasheed
[11] Reddit – /r/the_donald
[12] Reddit – /r/The_Donald