A Pittsburgh man who recorded himself saying the N-word pleaded guilty Thursday to killing a Black man back 2018.
via NYDN:
Joden Rocco, a 28-year-old white man, was heard saying the racial slur several times on the night of the killing, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. In the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 2018, he stabbed 24-year-old Dulane Cameron Jr. to death.
Rocco was bar-hopping on Pittsburgh’s North Side when he recorded a social media video about “playing a game” on how many times he could say the N-word to bartenders before getting kicked out.
But prosecutors countered that video with a message from Rocco, also from that night, that read: “This is not a game that we do. We need to be able to beat these n—–s up,” according to the Tribune-Review.
Prosecutors also cited another text message from the night, in which Rocco snapped a photo of his boots and sent it to a friend with the caption, “Carolina n—– stompers.”
After being denied access to a bar, Rocco encountered Cameron and a friend walking down the street, according to witness accounts. He then started a confrontation with the two Black men before squaring up with Cameron for a fight.
In the fight, Rocco stabbed Cameron in the neck and took off, police said. Cameron died on the street that night. Rocco was arrested after trying to ask police for a ride home.
Rocco pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree murder, the Tribune-Review reported. There was no sentencing agreement attached to the plea; the maximum penalty is between 20 and 40 years in prison. Rocco will be sentenced June 2.
Shortly after the killing, the Southern Poverty Law Center examined Rocco’s social media pages and found he was a fan of several racist, alt-right and Nazi-adjacent accounts. Activists lobbiedfor hate crime charges at the time, but they were never filed.
We really hate how emboldened racists have become since 2016. It’s absolutely disgusting.
