A Michigan vigilante who amassed thousands of social media followers with his unauthorized hunts for pedophiles was shot and killed in a confrontation with two teenagers, police said.
Robert Wayne Lee, 40, of Pontiac, was better known as Boopac Shakur online, where he would often pose as a 15-year-old girl to expose alleged predators.
Authorities say that Lee accused one of the teens at a local restaurant of being a pedophile and punched him—leading one of the boys to pull out a knife and the other to fire a gun. The suspects fled but were later arrested.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office noted Lee’s unsanctioned activities—and their uneven results—in a news release about his slaying.
“His one-man crusade has led to the arrest and criminal charges being filed against several men,” it said. “He has also mistakenly identified someone as a sexual predator who was not.”
Videos that Lee posted to Facebook showed him confronting the men he corresponded with while posing as a minor in the style of the show To Catch a Predator.
A GoFundMe to benefit his daughter said Lee “dedicated his life to protecting the innocence of our children from those with malicious intentions. Through his courageous efforts, he successfully exposed 132 predators who sought to harm our community’s youth.”
However, in January, police confirmed just four arrests based on Lee’s videos, according to the Oakland Press. Police had asked Lee to stop his sting operations, but he persisted and even announced classes for others who wanted to follow suit.
Lee denied he was a vigilante. “I’m a concerned citizen,” he told the Press. “A vigilante is doing police work without a badge.”
“I’m just putting the fishing pole in the water and seeing who’s biting,” he added.
And teens he confronted killed him? He typically posed as a 15 year old girl to catch people it says. I guess these teens are in the wrong if they’re 18-19? Story just seems a little strange.
Confronting people by yourself is not something a level headed individual does. This guy was clearly getting off on some type of vigilante hero complex.
Low hanging fruit. There’s not that many actual pedophiles out there, and the ones that exist are usually pretty cautious (otherwise they’d have been caught already).
But technically an 18 year old wanting to have sex with a 16 year old…
I don’t know anything about this guy, but the fact that he was accusing teenagers of being pedophiles suggests he was just trying to get fame and attention by capitalizing on the current “pedophiles everywhere” moral panic.
Is highly dependent on local laws. Some outlaw it, some are perfectly fine with it, and some fall into a gray area between. For instance, it may be a minor offense (no pun intended, I swear) instead of a major offense if there were a greater age gap. These are sometimes known as “Romeo and Juliet” laws
Romeo and Juliet laws are not a defense or protection from prosecution. They generally only apply after a conviction and generally they just prevent one person from being labeled as a sex offender if specific conditions are met. The application and conditions vary depending on location.
I think you might be lost, friendo
We were talking about pedophiles, not pedantry
These kids weren’t wrong no matter what though. They were attracted to an adult man in women’s clothing. Unless he was somehow broadcasting the fake age, they weren’t attracted to a 15 year old girl. They were attracted to an adult man who thought he looked like a 15 year old girl.
I’m not familiar with this guy’s technique. How did he go about baiting potential targets?
The usual methods of the past used text and staged images, so the targets didn’t see the real person until a meetup. I’d suppose though that with the advancements in live video filters over the past several years there’s no reason this guy couldn’t just dress in drag and apply appropriate filters so he appears as required.
Yeah, I was thinking this was all in person, hence why he may accidentally end up targeting teenagers. It probably was online and they didn’t see the person until the meeting. This man has to be super dumb to go after other teenagers, let alone putting himself in this position without other support structures and things to protect him.