Robert Wayne Lee, better known as Boopac Shakur, was a social media personality who filmed himself confronting alleged sex predators in public. He was shot and killed Sunday by one of two teenage boys he was confronting in a restaurant.
He published videos of his exploits to over 11,000 followers on Facebook and over 45,000 followers on Instagram. Some of those videos appear to show him engaging in violent confrontations with alleged predators. Lee confronted two teenagers Friday night – a 17- and 18-year-old – at a restaurant in Pontiac. He accused one of being a pedophile and punched him, according to the police news release. The teen who was punched pulled out a knife, and the other – suspected to be the 17-year-old – shot Lee several times with a pistol, according to police. He was taken to the hospital and later died of his injuries.
The reporting on Lee generally describes him as a vigilante and his targets as sexual predators, pedophiles and so on, but there is not much about the important context: the rise of YouTuber types who engineer and film violent public confrontions for clout. Their entrapment methodology lures targets but makes them hard to prosecute—and informs the real deal that they have an op-sec problem. CNN notes that Lee has uncovered criminals, including a sheriff's deputy (fired, but not yet prosecuted), but has mistakenly identified people as sexual predators in the past.
