There was a shooting Friday night during a riot outside an event at the University of Washington where Milo Yiannopoulos was speaking. Because the identity of the victim and suspected gunman were unknown, and we had no idea what motivated the shooting, I waited for facts to emerge before commenting on this incident. Seattle Times reports:

The man who surrendered to police in connection with the University of Washington shooting Friday night was released after telling investigators he fired in self-defense during a campus protest, according to two law-enforcement officials briefed on the case.

No details about any confrontation between him and the critically wounded man were available Saturday. But one of the law-enforcement officials said the man who fired the gun claimed he had been assaulted before shooting the other man, whom he believed to be some type of white supremacist.

The injured man, 34, was in critical condition Saturday at Harborview Medical Center, following surgery. His name was not released.

The shooting, which occurred during a protest of a Friday-night speech at Kane Hall by Breitbart News Network editor and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, remains under investigation.

Two people who said they are friends with the wounded man disputed the characterization of him as a supremacist. One said his friend supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary, and both said he sports an anti-hate tattoo that consists of a black swastika surrounded by a red circle with a slash through it.

Max Vohra of Seattle, who has known the man for seven years, said his friend got the tattoo more than a decade ago “when he was living in California, and had to deal with a lot of racists in the punk scene.” . . .

Daniel Herrera, who has worked and socialized with the man for three years, said he’s never seen his friend be aggressive.

“He has always been of the mind to be compassionate, empathetic and to educate. That’s his goal,” Herrera said.

UW police offered few details Saturday, saying in a news release that no suspects were being sought, and that the man who said he fired the gun was released pending investigation.

UW spokesman Norm Arkans defended the university’s handling of the event, saying that 80 Seattle police officers were brought in to supplement the 25 officers UW assigned to the event. . . .

Once the speech ended, police told audience members to remove their Donald Trump hats and other gear before leaving. Officers escorted the crowd out through an underground parking garage as a crowd of about 250 people remained outside the building.

So, it would appear, the shooter was part of the violent anti-Trump mob, who brought a pistol to this allegedly “peaceful” protest, and shot one of his fellow protesters — a Bernie Sanders supporter — in the mistaken belief that the victim was a white supremacist. This dangerous mob scene occurred on the campus of a state university, where a climate of violent hatred was instigated by soi-disant advocates of “social justice.”

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