Race and Killing in Florida

Another killing — two of them, actually — in Florida, involving victims walking through a strange neighborhood. Racial conflict is at its heart. Bet you didn’t hear about this. I didn’t, until a reader just forwarded this to me:

A Florida teen is facing life in prison without parole for murdering two young British tourists who got lost and wandered into a housing project where their convicted killer lived.

After an eight-day trial, a jury on Wednesday convicted 17-year-old Shawn Tyson of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting of James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, last April.

Teenager Shawn Tyson, left, has been found guilty of murdering British tourists James Cooper, 25, center, and friend James Kouzaris, 24.

The two men were on a three-week Sarasota holiday and spent an evening drinking when they got lost.

More:

Authorities said both were drunk when they got lost and accidentally wandered just before 3 a.m. into the housing project where Tyson lived.

Witnesses testified that Tyson told them he saw two “crackers” — a derogatory term for white people — walking through the neighborhood and that he intended to rob them. The tourists said they didn’t have any money and begged Tyson to let them go home. The men also told Tyson they were lost.

“Since you ain’t got no money, then I have something for your ass,” Tyson recounted to a witness, then added that he shot the men several times.

And:

Tyson was portrayed as an angry teen, one who had the word “Savage” tattooed on his chest and who loved a movie about Jamaican gangs so much that he quoted it when talking to his friends about the murders.

Quick, down the memory hole…