Riley, a Brandon, Florida native, reportedly displayed no remorse and gave no reason for his conduct while in police custody, saying detectives, "You know why I did this." According to police, Riley allegedly indicated he was high on methamphetamine and a "survivalist" after the heinous and apparently unprovoked mass murder.
After appearing in court Monday morning, the Marine veteran, who, according to his girlfriend, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, faces over a dozen accusations, including four counts of first-degree murder, and is being held without bond.
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), the heinous murder is at least the 481st mass shooting in the United States in 2021. A mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot and/or killed in a single event at the same general time and location, excluding the shooter. According to the GVA, at least 30,398 persons have died in the United States this year due to gun violence, with slightly more than half of those deaths (16,434) ascribed to suicide by gun.
The 40-year-old father, Justice Gleason, his 33-year-old wife, a mother of three, their three-month-old baby, and the 64-year-old grandma were all killed in the tragedy on Sunday. After being shot at least seven times, the family's 11-year-old daughter is critical at Tampa General Hospital. According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, the family dog was also shot and died.
The limited details that have been provided so far are really upsetting. According to police, the incident began on Saturday night when Riley traveled 30 miles east from Brandon, a suburb of Tampa, to Lakeland and parked his car on N Socrum Loop Road, near the family's home, for unknown reasons.
Riley made contact with Gleason while mowing his lawn, according to Riley's fiancée, and told him that God had sent him there to find a youngster named Amber and prevent her from committing suicide. Riley was told by Gleason and his unidentified 33-year-old wife that no one by that name lived in their house and that they should leave before calling the cops. Riley told his girlfriend, "Look, you don't need to call the cops because I'm the cops for God," according to detectives.
The couple still dialed 911, but Riley had already left for his home in Brandon when they arrived. Riley returned to the house about nine hours later.
Lieutenant Duane Thompkins of Pasco County heard gunfire coming from the vicinity at 4:30 a.m., presumably by chance. Multiple 911 calls were received immediately after Thompkins arrived at the sound of the bullets, describing an active shooter situation in Lakeland.
According to police reports, when officers arrived at the house, they discovered Riley's truck on fire, as well as "glow sticks" set on the street and front lawn, presumably to direct authorities to the front of the house. As they sought to make contact, police said they spotted a figure dressed in camouflage and, without a weapon, dash into the residence.
County Sheriff Judd told reporters that once Riley was inside the house, authorities heard a barrage of gunfire followed by "a woman scream and baby whimper." The front entrance was supposedly barred, and police were unable to enter. Riley, heavily armed and wearing a bulletproof vest, helmet, and kneepads, attacked three police officers who attempted to gain entry through the back door.
As cops attempted to flee through the rear door they had just entered, a brief gunfight followed. The shootout elicited a barrage of gunfire from officers stationed outside the residence. “At least dozens, if not hundreds of rounds [were] fired,” Judd estimated. According to photos supplied by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the home is littered with bullets and broken glass.
A police aircraft stationed overhead reported seeing Riley flee the residence with his hands up after a brief halt in the shooting. He was taken to Lakeland Regional Hospital with what appeared to be a single gunshot wound. Judd discovered at least two weapons; however, a third weapon may have been found. Riley allegedly tried to grasp an officer's gun while at the hospital and had to be held and sedated.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Riley was stationed at Camp Lejuene in North Carolina from January 2007 to March 2011 with the 1st Battalion 6th Marines and the 1st Battalion 9th Marines. Riley served in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2008 and Marjah, Afghanistan, in 2009-2010 while stationed at Camp Lejeune.
Riley stated on his LinkedIn profile that he worked for Academi, formerly known as Blackwater, a private security and military firm created by former Navy Seal and billionaire war criminal Erik Prince in 2013. Riley claims to have worked as a "Protection Specialist" for Griffin Defense since August 2017, providing "close protection" in Mexico, Nigeria, Paris, and Peru, as well as an "Executive Protection Agent" for ESS Global Corporation.
Riley's social media photographs show him displaying military-grade guns and equipment. Riley had no certainly watched, or perhaps participated in, the indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and children on Sunday morning.
Riley was described as a "war hero" who "fought for his country" as well as "evil in the flesh" and a "rabid animal" by Judd during a press conference on Sunday.
“It would have been nice if he would have come out with a gun, and then we would have been able to read a newspaper through him,” Judd told reporters, lamenting the fact that his deputies were not given the perfect circumstances to carry out an extrajudicial execution Sunday morning. When someone chooses to surrender, however, we take them into custody in a calm manner. We would have shot him up alive if he had given us a chance. But because he's a coward, he didn't.”
Judd's reaction exemplifies the very sick society that generates a figure like Riley. While the specific reason Riley drove 30 miles to slaughter a family he reportedly didn't know will likely never be discovered, the social factors that contribute to such regular and, at this point, commonplace acts of homicidal sociopathic violence in the United States are well understood.
In the United States, capitalism has created a deeply unequal society in which the great majority of the population is one missed paycheck or an unexpected hospital visit away from homelessness. Meanwhile, the ruling class maintains a stranglehold on all of society's wealth and resources through their two bourgeois parties, usurping the majority for themselves.
Democrats and Republicans, speaking for hedge fund managers, the CIA, the Department of Defense, and multinational corporations focus their efforts on reversing America's declining global economic position through endless war abroad, ruthless class exploitation at home, and unlimited cash infusions and bailouts for Wall Street, who are divorced from working-class concerns.
Like so many others before it and to come, Sunday's horrific massacre appears to be domestic retaliation for American imperialism's atrocities overseas. Over 20 years of neocolonial conflicts abroad, combined with enormous deindustrialization, has badly devastated an entire layer of society.
While the specifics of Riley's background are unknown at this time, for many young workers and students, joining the US military is the only way to escape poverty and obtain a college education. Young people are trained and paid to kill people they don't know without hesitation or pity to sustain the US worldwide hegemony in this cruel institution. Private military and security companies, ready to swallow up US government money and revenue from predatory corporations wanting to "muscle out" their competition and repress working-class resistance, covet highly trained killers like Riley.
From small police agencies to the highest echelons of the Pentagon, the official policy of the United States government is to resolve all disputes with overwhelming and devastating violence. As evidenced by hand-wringing op-eds in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal bemoaning the United States' withdrawal and defeat in Afghanistan, the corporate media play a key role in fostering the antisocial atmosphere that pervades all aspects of American society, facilitating the never-ending carnage.
