A New Black Panther Party chapter leader is hailing the jihadi sympathizer who attacked New York City police officers with a hatchet last week as “a crusader seeking justice.”
Queens chapter leader Frank Sha Francois said hatchet-wielding Zale Thompson wasn’t officially a member of the Black Panthers, but he came to meetings and talked about “police brutality,” the New York Post reported.
Thompson was a Muslim convert who hated police and white people, according to his family and friends, the Post reported. He was shot dead in Queens Thursday after he lunged with a hatchet at four police officers, striking Officer Joseph Meeker, 24, in the arm and Officer Kenneth Healey, 25, in the back of the head, the Post reported.
Officer Healey remains in critical but stable condition as police officers and community members gathered for a short prayer service outside Jamaica Hospital for the two officers. Officer Meeker has been released from the hospital.
“It probably won’t be the last [attack on police] because you have a lot of frustrated people out here,” Mr. Francois told the Post.