Thanks to some sleuth work on the Internet, we're starting to learn more about Richard Poplawski, the 23-year-old who killed three police officers yesterday in Pittsburgh, evidently out of fear that his guns were going to be taken away.

It appears that what police may be looking at is a budding white supremacist who frequented one of the most popular neo-Nazi websites and harbored an apocalyptic dread of the federal government.

The Village Voice's True Crime Report has done a lot of the sleuthing. The thread of connective tissue involving the evidence they've uncovered isn't perfectly solid, but the strands are all well connected enough to suggest the general thrust is reasonably accurate.

The key is to look a little harder at the MySpace page of Poplawski's self-described "best friend," Eddie Perkovic -- the one that contains that anti-Semitic, anti-black racist rant, recommending that folks read David Duke and the Protocols. You can see Perkovic above, spouting the gun-nut line about how "he was gonna stand by what his forefathers told him to do."

The page also has links to his "friends" -- including one RichP, whose page has since been mostly wiped out, except for a Paul Reubens booking mugshot. There's a high likelihood that this RichP is in fact Poplawski, because Poplawski's StumpleUpon Page -- which features his photo -- also uses a "RichP" moniker. (We're in the process of trying to double-check the IPs.)

Well, as it happens, this same RichP has evidently posted at Stormfront.org -- the nation's most prominent and popular neo-Nazi Website. (True Crime Report has the links.) There, he evidently adopted the user name "Braced For Fate" and posted the following:

"Braced For Fate" also posted a long anti-Semitic rant at Stormfront, which we're printing excerpts from below the fold.

Finally, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has some corroboration from other sources that indicates he fits this profile:

Richard Andrew "Pop" Poplawski's ex-girlfriend said he dragged her by the hair and threatened to shoot her. He slept with a gun under his pillow in a basement room filled with firearms and ammunition, convinced that Jews controlled the media and President Obama was scheming to take away his arsenal, friends and relatives said Saturday.

"He was a violent, abusive man. He dragged me by the hair, pulling me across the floor. I saw him choke his own mother. He was controlling," said Melissa Gladish, 23, of Verona, his former girlfriend who received a protection from abuse order against him in 2005. She said she had no doubt he would kill someone. "He was never afraid of anyone. Once, he accused me of cheating on him, which I didn't do. He told me he had a gun he kept buried ... and that he would dig it up and get me," she said. ... Despite nearly four years of estrangement, Gladish said Poplawski phoned her in the midst of his standoff with police. "He said, 'I'm dying. I'm dying. I want you to know that I always loved you. You're still my baby,' " Gladish said. "I tried to calm him down. He said he was shot and that he was dying. He said, 'I'm lying in a pool of blood.' Then I heard a lot of noise, like a scuffle, and the phone went dead."

Finally, his old friend Eddie Perkovic pipes in too:

Perkovic said Poplawski usually was affable and kind, but grew angry recently over fears Obama would outlaw guns. He said Poplawski owned a bullet-proof vest, an AK-47 assault rifle and at least seven other weapons, but obtained the firearms legally. He said Poplawski feared America was "going to see the end of our times." Poplawski had little interest in clubs or sports in high school, but was a diehard Penguins fan, Perkovic said. Another Stanton Heights friend, Aaron Bire, 22, said Poplawski "talked about Zionists controlling the media and thought Obama had good press because of his race."

That meshes perfectly with the rant posted by "Braced For Fate" at Stormfront:

Decoding the collapse First, let’s review a few basic tenets that are commonly espoused here on StormFront: 1. The federal government, mainstream media, and banking system in these United States are strongly under the influence of- if not completely controlled by- Zionist interest. 2. An economic collapse of the financial system is inevitable, bringing with it some degree of civil unrest if not outright balkanization of the continental US, civil/revolutionary/racial war, SHTF/TEOTWAKI scenario etc. 2A. This collapse is likely engineered by the elite Jewish powers that be in order to make for a power and asset grab. Now, it seems to me that there is a need to reconcile these concepts into a seamless, sensible theory about our near future. I don’t think there is any question that item 1 is the truth. ZOG is. One can read the list of significant persons in government and in major corporations and see who is pulling the strings. One can observe the policies and final products and should walk away with little doubt there is Zionist occupation and- after some further research & critical thinking- will discover their insidious intentions. I also don’t think there is too much debate about the eventuality of a collapse of economic and social order in this country. All signs seem to point to a once great nation in the midst its last gasp, suffocating under the weight fiscal irresponsibility. Poisoned by design by the moral decadence that is a direct byproduct of item 1. The purpose of this thread is to tap into the collective knowledgebase of the many bright White Nationalist thinkers that peruse this forum. Please help me try to determine the most likely scenario so that we may organize ourselves around it and plan for its contingencies. If we somehow get thoroughly blind-sided at this late stage it is possible that we may never recover. At the heart of my question is this: If 1 and 2 are accepted as accurate, what sense does it make for 2A to also be true? In other words: Why, seeing as how the Jews seem to have the nation right where they want it, would they now turn around and destroy it? Common perception seems to be that if there is an abrupt collapse of social order then racial awareness among the white population will rise dramatically. The Jewish media that dictates “pop culture” could no longer elevate the negro, and reality would reveal its nature. Race-mixing would come to a halt overnight. Consumerism and materialism would cease as the people scrounge for the necessities. It would make much more sense to keep the population content and therefore apathetic and lethargic than to stir the pot that would at the very least: create a disruption in the agenda, and at the very most: drive the elite from their places of power, which have undoubtedly been sought out and schemed after for decades. Fortunately, as of right now, the American populace has yet to be fully racially homogenized, has yet to become even close to disarmed, and still would stand a fighting chance to throw off their chains and ensure a worthwhile existence for their children. It would make more sense, from the perspective of the Zionists, to maintain status quo and continue the drumbeat of miscenegration, continue to sound the horn of liberalism, and continue the march toward a dystrophic society in which they could never be challenged. ... Don’t get me wrong. If a total collapse is what it takes to wake our brethren and guarantee future generations of white children walk this continent, if that is what it takes to restore our freedoms and recapture our land: let it begin this very second and not a moment later. Let comfort and convenience be damned, and I will welcome the hardship and embrace the pain secure in the knowledge that our people will rise above and overcome our darkest days. I just am beginning to think that the elders of Zion are too smart to start the war. Why would they give us the push we need? Unless greed and audacity have clouded their minds in the final hour, I just cannot see an engineered abrupt collapse scenario. We, the people, are not ripe to be picked from the tree of liberty. Not just yet. If disturbed at this juncture, the seeds of racial purity will fall again on this land and take root. Our enemies know it. They’ve got to.

More as we learn it.