Mark Anthony Stroman
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Mark Anthony Stroman (13 October 1969 - 20 July 2011) was an American white supremacist terrorist responsible for a shooting spree in Dallas in 2001 which killed two people and injured a third. Stroman carried out the attack against people who he believed to be of Muslim descent in retaliation for the September 11 attacks. He was executed by lethal injection on 20 July 2011.
Biography edit
Stroman was born in Dallas in 1969. He was abused by his father growing up and was imprisoned several times for theft, credit card fraud and firearms offences. He joined the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang and had several Nazi and KKK tattoos.
On 16 December 2001, Stroman walked into a grocery shop in Dallas and encountered the owner, 46-year-old Muslim Pakistani immigrant Waqar Hasan. He fatally shot Hasan in the head before fleeing the store.
On 21 September, Stroman entered a Dallas petrol station with a double-barrelled shotgun. The cashier, Muslim Bangladeshi immigrant Rais Bhuiyan, assumed it was a robbery and began to empty the cash register and was asked by Stroman where he was from. Before Bhuiyan could give a proper answer Stroman shot him in the face and left. Bhuiyan survived but was left permanently blind in his right eye.
On 4 October, Stroman robbed a petrol station in Mesquite with a .44-calibre handgun. The cashier, Hindu Indian immigrant Vasudev Patel, refused to open the cash register when Stroman demanded money and instead reached for a gun under the counter. Stroman shot Patel in the chest before attempting to force open the register; when it wouldn't open he ran away, leaving Patel to bleed to death.
Stroman was arrested the following day for Patel's murder. He confessed to the other two shootings, telling police that they were an "act of patriotism" and crediting the death of his sister in the 9/11 attacks with triggering the shooting. According to court papers, prosecutors said there was no evidence he had a sister and believed him to be trying to garner sympathy. He was convicted of two counts of capital murder and sentenced to death. His one surviving victim, Rais Bhuiyan, made several unsuccessful appeals to save his life. Stroman reportedly changed his racist views upon hearing that Bhuiyan was appealing to save him and later spoke to him in person and apologized for shooting him.
Stroman was executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Penitentiary on 20 July 2011.