An Idaho-based white nationalist podcast has been swamping residents of the Atlanta suburb of Clayton County, Georgia, with racist robocalls in defense of an accused murder suspect, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The calls, made by hate group Road to Power, began circulating shortly after 21-year-old Hannah Payne was charged with murder for following and shooting Kenneth Herring, a Black man, who she witnessed trying to flee the scene of a car accident last week.
Hannah Payne, 21, was arrested and charged with murder without malice after fatally shooting a man who fled the scene of a car accident. (WSB-TV / video screenshot)
“Negroes aren’t American,” the call says. “They aren’t really fully human. It’s time to send them all to Africa. “[Payne] has been cast as the criminal, when in fact it was the negro.”
Police determined Payne was the aggressor in the incident and decided to take matters into her own hands when she noticed Herring’s pickup truck hit another car and attempt to leave. She then tailed the 62-year-old man for about a mile before boxing him in with her Jeep.
An altercation ensued, during which Herring was shot in the abdomen. He was pronounced dead at a hospital and Payne was criminally charged.
The young woman, whose attorney claims was only acting as a “Good Samaritan,” has maintained her innocence in the case and claims the gun went off during her struggle with Herring.
On Tuesday, the AJC reported that Payne’s attorney said they are in no way connected to Road to Power, which the Anti-Defamation League has called a “white supremacist and anti-Semitic broadcasting outlet.”
The podcast was behind a racist call targeting Florida voters ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial election. The call featured a voice purporting to be that of Black Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum and used an exaggerated minstrel dialect, interspersed with screeching monkey sounds
District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said she was “flabbergasted” and repulsed by the racist calls, but said no one has contacted her office about them.
“It’s not going to be doing Ms. Payne any favors for people with attitudes like that to contact this office about the case,” Lawson told local station WSB-TV.
Payne remains in the Clayton County Jail without bond.
