Countywide : Man Is Convicted in Racial Shooting
A San Bernardino County man was convicted in Santa Ana on Friday on federal charges stemming from his racially motivated shooting attack on a black neighbor.
Jurors who heard the 3-day trial in U.S. District Court convicted Gary D. McInnis of one count of using intimidation to interfere with housing rights on the basis of race and one count of using a gun to commit a felony.
McInnis, 39, of Hesperia faces sentencing by U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts on Oct. 11.
McInnis opened fire with a rifle on the Hesperia home of Oleatha Keller on Jan. 26, striking her at least once. She has since recovered. Bullet fragments removed from her abdomen matched those taken from McInnis’ rifle, officials said.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies who searched McInnis’ garage found several rifles and shotguns and ammunition. They also found items that suggested race-related hostility, including swastikas, insignia of a white-supremacist group and figures of blacks and a monkey hanging by their necks from nooses.
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