The teen shooting suspect who was responsible for killing 8 people inside a FedEx facility in Indianapolis was a part of a bizarre themed internet subculture.
Reports confirmed how 19-year-old Brandon Hole was literally obsessed with ‘My Little Pony.’ Moreover, posts from the shooter’s Facebook account, which has now been removed show how he was an active member of the famous ‘Bronies’ community which is basically a group comprising of adult men that are huge fans of small kiddies themed toys as well as an animated television show.
According to local media outlets, some members of the group are super obsessed and even sexually attracted towards the characters. In addition, the group contains some reported displays of far-right tendencies too.
On one of the teen’s Facebook posts, he writes how he hoped that he could be with Applejack one fine day in the afterlife. Moreover, he also mentioned how his current life has zero meaning and purpose without the character.
This particular post was recently put up by Hole on his Facebook account last Thursday, around 10:19 pm. And that means it was just a little less than 60 minutes behind the rampage that he began.
On the other hand, the post also entailed a detailed photo showing who Applejack really was. It clearly depicted a blond-hued pony, which is actually the main character on that particular show.
The name Brony comes from a unique mashup of two words: Bro and Pony. This group also has a particular tendency of following a historic past of those relating to extremists. The media outlet confirmed this by citing a particular reference from a Facebook member that they reviewed via the detailed post.
The memo went on to state how the online culture of Brony displays elements from the far-right as well as white nationalist extremism. Meawhile, Facebook did stop short of mentioning how his pony love had anything to do with mass shooting incident.