He wasn't never scared. An imagined slur or slight. A supposed stolen item. A piece of clothing soiled or moved out of place. The first felony conviction of Huey Newton, years before he became founder and leader of the Black Panther Party, came after he stabbed another black man for stepping on his shoe.
Observers often shake their heads and express bafflement at such actions.
There is a cause, of course, but one that such observers either overlook out of ignorance or conveniently refuse to acknowledge. For many years, America turned a deaf ear to black victims of violence, thinking it all right or acceptable or tolerable because the victims were well black. He seeks to insulate his own neighborhood's schools, to protect the children of his own kind. But violence knows no boundaries. It is no respecter of law, nor of person.