Friends Shed Light On Richard Poplawski's Past
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Just who is Richard Poplawski?
More than two years after his arrest for the suspected murder of three Pittsburgh Police officers, he remains something of a mystery.
However, former Nazi skinhead T.J. Layden told KDKA-TV"s Andy Sheehan that he believe he has some answers.
"He's a symptom of what's going on, and sadly he's not going to be the last," Layden said.
Despite claims of close friends that he is not a racist, Poplawski posted frequently on the neo-Nazi website, Stormfront.
One of those friends, Eddie Perkovec, said Poplawski was especially concerned about the government taking away personal freedoms and that President Barack Obama would repeal gun rights.
"He didn't like our rights being infringed upon. He didn't like the Zionists controlling the media and our freedom of speech. He didn't like the control of guns that was about to happen," Perkovec said.
After being washed out of the Marines during basic training, Poplawski returned to Pittsburgh and stockpiled guns and high-powered rifles.
Layden believes that Poplawski is a white supremacist. He said police officers would have been his primary target.
"To be a white supremacist, the coup de grace, that the highest honor you can achieve, is to murder a police officer because they look at all police officers as Z.O.G.s - Zionist occupational government control. They look at them as the enemy," Layden said.
The Department of Homeland Security has dozens of postings by Poplawski ranting about gun control, police surveillance and racial issues.
However, none of those rants will be admissible as evidence in this trial because Judge Jeffrey Manning said they had no bearing on this case.
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