Man arrested in Sacramento ABC TV station shooting was flagged on X for “violent speech” days earlier

By Ashley Sharp

The man accused of firing shots at a Sacramento ABC-affiliate television station faced a judge for the first time Monday in federal court.

Anibal Hernandez Santana was arrested by the FBI over the weekend after posting bail on local charges, a move that lawyers say came as a surprise. 

The federal criminal complaint alleges handwritten notes were found in his car after the shooting, reading that he did not support Trump administration officials and writing, “they’re next.” 

Court documents describe another note that was found at his home, reading “do the next scary thing” under Friday’s date, the day of the shooting at ABC10. 

On Friday, at least three shots were fired into the downtown Sacramento station’s building through a window. No one was injured.   

At the Sacramento County level, District Attorney Thein Ho confirmed to CBS News Sacramento Monday that, based on the evidence, his office believes the shooting was politically motivated. 

The shooter’s exact motive is still under investigation, but investigators are looking into any potential connection between Hernandez Santana’s alleged shooting at ABC10’s building and the decision days before by ABC and Disney to sideline late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. 

The comedian was suspended by the network after comments he made on his show about the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. 

Just one day prior to the shooting at the building, a protest was held outside ABC10 in response to Kimmel’s on-air suspension, which is set to be lifted Tuesday, Sept. 23.

CBS News Sacramento reviewed social media posts from an account linked to Hernandez Santana and posted in the days leading up to the shooting. 

CBS News Sacramento did not find Hernandez Santana posted anything about Kimmel’s suspension; however, he did post several things online criticizing Kirk and the Trump administration. 

Just three days before the shooting, the social media platform “X” flagged a post of his, alerting that “this Post may violate X’s rules against Violent Speech.”

One day before the ABC10 shooting, he appeared to reference President Trump again, and on the morning of the shooting, he shared a video that referred to Kirk as a Christian disciple of Jesus, to which he responded, “This is blasphemy.” It was his only post on X the day of the ABC10 shooting incident. 

Dr. Garen Wintemute, a leading expert on political violence and director of the UC Davis Centers for Violence Prevention, studies what can be the negative effects of social media on violence. 

“The vast majority of Americans reject political violence altogether. It’s an extreme position to endorse political violence,” said Wintemute. 

He said based on the evidence currently at hand, it is reasonable to label the ABC10 shooting as political violence. 

“Posting, exhibiting hyper-partisan behavior, strongly polarizing partisan behavior, is a risk factor for committing violence. On the other hand, the vast majority of people who exhibit hyper-partisan behavior, do not commit violence,” said Wintemute. 

Digging further into Hernandez Santana’s background, in his social media bio on X he describes himself as a “health lawyer,” a “policy advisor,” and a “veteran.”

On the Secretary of State’s website, Hernandez Santana was listed as a registered lobbyist for the California Catholic Conference from 2001 through 2008. 

He was next listed as a lobbyist for the California Federation of Teachers starting in 2013 until termination in early 2015. 

Wintemute says, based on his ongoing research on political violence, he would ask whether something happened recently that may have led to a political radicalization in Hernandez Santana’s real life. 

“Maybe somebody in this man’s social network, whether on social media or in person, heard, you know something’s not quite so right now, when that happens, we need to be willing to contact the authorities so that they can take action to prevent an act of violence from occurring,” said Wintemute. 

Wintemute recently helped author a UC Davis study titled “Fear, Loathing, and Support for Political Violence in the United States” that was published last week. 

The summary of the study’s findings is: “Homonegativity, racism, transphobia, xenophobia, hostile sexism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism are all disturbingly common in the United States, and each of them is strongly linked to support for and willingness to commit political violence.” 

Those phenomena would most commonly be referred to as “far right wing” or extremely radical conservative ideals. 

But what about “far left-wing” violence, which could potentially describe the scenario of this accused shooter and his possible motivations if they were influenced by a disapproval of the Trump administration? 

“When I was a young man, the threat of political violence was mostly from the left. Lately, it’s been from the right. This year, we might see that switching some with a change in power in federal government, we’re actually looking at data this week on, has there been a switch with increased support for political violence on the left, decreased support on the right?” said Wintemute. 

The true motivations for why Hernandez Santana, who has not entered a plea in court, allegedly fired a gun at ABC10 are not yet known. He is being held in federal custody and is due back in court Thursday.