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LGBT Activists Had Warned Police About Oklahoma City Shooter

Tilghman

A man who opened fire at an Oklahoma City restaurant had previously posted anti-transgender screeds around the city.

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Alexander Tilghman was shot dead by bystanders on Thursday night after he opened fire at an Oklahoma City restaurant, injuring four people. Before his mass shooting, LGBT activists had warned local police that Tilghman was a threat, The Guardian reported.

Tilghman, 28, was a security guard and legal gun owner; he was also disturbed and dangerous. He distributed hundreds of fliers around the city about "demons in cloned transexual (sic) bodies" and filmed videos where he said his television was possessed by Satan and he himself was under "demonic attack."

Tilghman had given an interview to the local LGBT publication The Gayly in January about his fliers, saying things like, "I am trying to find real people out there; everywhere I go, there is nothing but fake people. ... Getting the truth out is all that matters." The interview appears to be currently unavailable.

Gayley staffmembers then spoke to local police twice about Tilghman, with officers eventually coming to their office and taking a transcript of his interview.

After Thursday's shooting -- which injured a 39-year-old woman, two girls, and a man trying to escape the restaurant -- Oklahoma City police captain Bo Mathews said the only interaction they ever had with Tilghman was when he was 13 and attacked his mother during a dispute over a vacuum cleaner.

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