Which 2010s and 2020s U.S. mass shootings were linked to white supremacist or neo-Nazi ideology?

1. Clear cases: shootings with documented white‑supremacist or neo‑Nazi motive

Investigations and reporting have identified several mass shootings in the 2010s–2020s in which perpetrators openly embraced white supremacist ideology. Dylann Roof, who murdered nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015, published a racist manifesto and used neo‑Nazi symbolism online, and watchdogs linked him to The Daily Stormer and other extremist sites ^[4]. The 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh was prosecuted as an antisemitic, white‑supremacist hate crime ^[5]. The 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting produced an online manifesto invoking the “Great Replacement” conspiracy and explicitly targeted Hispanic people ^{[3] [6]}. The 2022 Buffalo grocery store shooter admitted to white‑supremacist motives targeting Black shoppers, and authorities described the attack as inspired by racist conspiracy theory ^{[1] [2]}. Local and national reporting also identified neo‑Nazi imagery and postings by the 2023 Allen, Texas mall shooter, whom officials and outlets described as having “neo‑Nazi ideation” and Nazi tattoos ^{[7] [8]}.

2. How researchers and NGOs classify these events

Groups tracking extremist violence (notably the Anti‑Defamation League’s Center on Extremism) classify killings according to available evidence of ideological motivation: manifestos, social‑media posts, affiliations, or explicit admissions. ADL reporting noted a spike in extremist‑linked mass killings over the past decade and found that in 2022 “over 80%” of extremist‑related U.S. murders were committed by white supremacists, with mass shootings accounting for most extremist fatalities that year ^{[1] [9]}. The ADL’s longer reports list incidents they count as extremist‑connected mass killings and describe patterns such as accelerationist propaganda and cross‑referencing of prior attackers ^[2].

3. Online ecosystems and cross‑pollination of tactics

Investigations show many of these shooters consumed and amplified the same online material: “Great Replacement” rhetoric, worship of earlier mass killers (international figures like Brenton Tarrant and Anders Breivik), and neo‑Nazi forums where tactics and manifestos circulate. Reporting and NGO analysis tie that ecosystem to radicalization and copying of prior attacks ^{[3] [2]}. Authorities have pointed to social‑media footprints, Nazi iconography, and direct references to other attackers as evidence linking individual perpetrators to organized extremist narratives ^{[10] [8]}.

4. Cases where motive was contested or unclear

Not every mass shooting has an immediately clear ideological motive, and some narratives about white supremacist causation have been challenged. Certain databases and analysts argue white supremacists do not “explain” the majority of all mass shootings across decades, and some researchers urge caution before generalizing from extremist‑linked cases to all mass shootings (available sources do not mention a single comprehensive refutation of ADL’s 2022 finding; counter‑analyses are advanced by groups like the Crime Prevention Research Center) ^[11]. News outlets and experts emphasize that classification can change as investigations reveal more about a suspect’s motives and communications ^{[9] [12]}.

5. Broader context: why these attacks matter beyond individual cases

Experts warn that extremist‑connected mass shootings have outsized social impact: they concentrate fatalities, terrorize communities, and inspire copycats; ADL and other analysts say recent years show a growing share of extremist murders tied to white supremacy, driven in part by online accelerationist propaganda that explicitly cites earlier attackers as models ^{[2] [1]}. Policymakers and researchers therefore treat these incidents partly as terrorism and partly as hate crimes because of their political and communal targets ^{[9] [13]}.

6. Limitations, disagreements and what reporting doesn’t resolve

Available reporting identifies several high‑profile mass shootings with clear white‑supremacist links, and ADL data shows a high proportion of extremist‑related murders in some recent years were committed by white supremacists ^{[1] [2]}. But sources also show methodological disagreements across trackers (definitions of “mass shooting,” inclusion criteria) and competing analyses about how representative extremist cases are of the broader mass‑shooting problem; some organizations argue the narrative that “white supremacists do most mass public shootings” is overstated depending on definitions and time frames ^{[14] [11]}. Where sources do not report motive or ideological links for a specific shooting, that absence is material: available sources do not mention every mass shooting and its motive, and classifications can change as new evidence appears ^{[14] [15]}.

Bottom line: multiple well‑documented U.S. mass shootings in the 2010s–2020s were linked to white supremacist or neo‑Nazi ideology (Charleston 2015; Pittsburgh 2018; El Paso 2019; Buffalo 2022; Allen 2023 among them), ADL and major press outlets treat those incidents as part of a troubling trend of ideologically motivated mass killings, and methodological disputes about scope and proportion persist among researchers and advocacy groups ^{[4] [5] [3] [1]}.