White Supremacist Mass Shooter of Protesters To Be Released From Prison in First Week of 2026
A decade after shooting five unarmed Black protesters in Minneapolis, white supremacist Allen “Lance” Scarsella is set to be released from his prison sentence on January 5, 2026. Despite community calls for hate crime and attempted murder charges, Scarsella was convicted of felony riot and assault and sentenced to 15 years for his racially motivated terror attack on the Black Lives Matter, Justice for Jamar Clark protest encampment outside of Minneapolis Police’s 4th Precinct on Nov. 23, 2015.
Scarsella was arrested by SWAT police on Nov. 24, 2015, at his parents’ suburban home. Police found the handgun used for the attack in Scarsella’s room next to a computer adorned with a German Nazi flag and a Confederate flag on the wall. He is now 33 years old.
Scarsella was part of the beginning of a new wave of white nationalists using coded language and memes derived from the Internet while espousing white supremacist ideals through terminology not recognized by the larger majority of the populace. He routinely participated in armed meetups and camping trips with other racists that were organized on 4chan’s /k/ board, several of whom took part in trolling and stalking the Jamar Clark protests while armed.
Since his arrest, Scarsella has been incarcerated in protective custody and was sent to an out-of-state facility to serve his state sentence.
See the timeline of Scarsella’s racially motivated mass shooting in the video below, originally published in 2015. For more on Scarsella’s charges, trial and sentencing, see Unicorn Riot’s 10-part series here.
Reportbacks From the Scarsella Trial (Ten Part Series) [May 2017]
“Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes”: White Supremacists Arrested for Shootings [Nov. 2015]
Eight days before Scarsella carried out his attack, 24-year-old Jamar Clark was fatally shot in the head by Minneapolis Police (MPD) two blocks from the 4th Precinct on Nov. 15, 2015.
A large and sustained community response followed the killing, activists from Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, Minneapolis NAACP and other groups formed an encampment in front of the 4th Precinct. Media coverage exploded on Nov. 18 after police violence led to crowds defending themselves and expanding their occupation of the precinct grounds.
The next day, while wearing camouflage fatigues and covering his face with a keffiyeh, Scarsella made his first trolling appearance at the protest with his friends Daniel Macey and ex-Marine Julio Suarez. Scarsella and Suarez drove together from Suarez’s apartment in Uptown to the north Minneapolis protest and streamed video to 4chan’s /k/ board while spewing racist code words and showing a handgun. They said their plan was to gain “internet fame” and troll the crowd into doing something reactive.
The trio walked through the protest, got interviewed by Unicorn Riot, and later voluntarily left after being confronted for what they were saying on their live stream. They walked back to their car without incident.
After they left, a weekend of racially motivated internet threats were made on the protest encampment. Then on Monday, Nov. 23, 2015, Scarsella came back with Nathan Gustavsson, Joseph Backman, and Daniel Macey. This time, Scarsella was coming for blood and turning bigoted Internet trolling into real-life terrorism while live-streaming the violence.
They arrived and stood at the edge of the protest while masked. Spotted quickly, they were approached by protesters who asked them to remove their masks. They refused, and they started to walk back to their car. A few punches were thrown, and a block away, Scarsella pulled his handgun and emptied his magazine, firing seven bullets into five people before running to a vehicle.
Five young, unarmed Black men were shot: Cameron Clark, Walter Hoskins, Teven King*, Draper Larkins, and Wesley Martin. Hoskins was shot multiple times by Scarsella who stood over him before making his getaway.
Hiding Hate Crimes: Prosecutor Goes Easy on Attempted Murderers [March 2016]
Scarsella claimed self-defense, and in January 2017, trial proceedings in the State of Minnesota vs. Scarsella took place on the sixteenth floor of the Hennepin County Government Center and were presided over by Judge Hilary Lindell Caligiuri.
Over thirty witnesses were called to the stand. Police officers, victims, co-defendants, and Scarsella himself testified at the trial that lasted eleven days. Representing Scarsella were public defenders Laura Heinrich and Peter Martin, while Assistant Hennepin County Attorneys Judith Hawley and Chris Freeman prosecuted the case.
The trial hinged on documenting the perpetrator’s intolerant subculture and anti-Blackness as a motive for the armed attack, namely speaking and posting about white-supremacist ideals through memes and coded terminology.
On February 2, 2017, a jury of twelve people found Scarsella guilty on all 12 felonies levied against him — one count of first-degree assault, one count of second-degree riot while armed, and five counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon – causing substantial bodily harm, as well as five more counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.
Reportbacks From the Scarsella Trial (Ten Part Series) [May 2017]
On April 26, 2017, Scarsella was sentenced to 182 months in custody, or 15 years and two months, by Judge Caligiuri. With Minnesota’s sentencing rules, inmates in state prison can get out in two-thirds of the time served, so 15 years turns to 10.
Scarsella Trial – Part Ten: Scarsella Guilty of 12 Felonies, Sentenced to 15 Years [April 2017]
Since the beginning, Scarsella has been in administrative segregation, or ad-seg, for his protection. From inside Hennepin County jail to prison, he’s been protected by the state.
After his sentencing and his orientation at MCF-St. Cloud, the state immediately took him to an out-of-state “non-DOC facility,” which sources say is likely in Illinois. Because of this protection, his location is hidden, and he doesn’t have updated images posted on the DOC offender locator website. Inquiries sent to Scarsella’s listed caseworker went unanswered.
Scarsella’s legal team filed a Petition for Postconviction Relief in 2018, asking for a new trial because they claimed the state should have disclosed through an MPD officer that one of the victims that Scarsella shot had a “reputation-for-violence.” The petition was denied. The legal team also attempted to appeal his conviction. The Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed Scarsella’s conviction in April 2019.
White men acting as vigilantes and terrorizing Black communities have long been a fixture of America.
Further UR Reporting on White Vigilantes:
The Murder of AJ Stewart [Saint Paul, Dec. 2021] * The Killing of Dorian Murrell [Indianapolis, May 2020] * The Killing of Calvin Horton Jr. [Minneapolis, May 2020] * The Dead Are Rising: Understanding the Planned Attack in Tulsa 100 Years Later [June 2021]
Co-Defendants Have Charges Dropped, Given Lenient Sentences
Julio Suarez, whom was essentially the ring leader of the harassment troupe, escaped all charges despite the group meeting up back at his Uptown apartment after the attack, and his involvement in the planning.
Not long after Suarez testified at Scarsella’s trial, Unicorn Riot reported on Suarez’s Discord profile, finding that his public posts mostly fixated on his past military service, alt-right memes, his love for weapons, and his hatred against Muslims, Somalis, antifascists, and communists. He also shared several disturbing pictures of corpses that he said were kills made during his military service in the Iraq war.
Ex-Marine Linked to Minneapolis Mass Shooting Shared War Gore and Murder Fantasies After Trial [April 2019]
Three others were initially charged for being with Scarsella. They were Nathan Wayne Gustavsson, Joseph Backman, and Daniel Macey.
Gustavsson, who’s now 31, was charged with six felonies and convicted of two: second-degree riot armed with a dangerous weapon and aiding an offender, accomplice after the fact. He was sentenced to 240 days in the workhouse on work release and was given two months before starting his sentence. Work release allowed him to leave the facility to go to work and come back after work.
Part of Gustavsson’s deal included a stay of imposition, which led to his felonies being reduced to misdemeanors despite violating his probation in 2019 after being convicted of a DWI in St. Louis County.
Joseph Martin Backman, now 37, was convicted only of aiding an offender in second-degree assault. He faced no legal consequences after being given a durational departure sentence on July 19, 2017, by Judge Caligiuri. Court records show that he was newly married before the shooting and divorced by the time he was sentenced.
Daniel Macey, who was also with Scarsella, got his charges dropped by Judge Caligiuri in late February 2017.
Stay tuned for our upcoming special documentary on the 18-day-long 4th Precinct shutdown. In Jamar Clark news, his family unveiled a new marble-stone bench near the place he took his final breath.
*Correction: The original publication of this story wrongfully noted Teven King passed away from his injuries. We sincerely apologize for this error.
*We have added Minneapolis NAACP to the organizers of the encampment listing.
Cover image via Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot.
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