As they were working, she said, a man approached them and yelled that they were “violent terrorists,” repeatedly calling them misogynistic vulgarities and accusing them of being responsible for the violence in the city. The women were about a block from the house where Mr. Smith lives.
She said he threatened them, saying, “If I see you pass by my house, I will shoot you.”
Ms Beck said that Ms Knightley approached the man and said, “You won’t scare us. You can’t intimidate us.”
The shooter then shot Ms. Knightley in the face, Ms. Beck said.
Ms Beck said she was shot twice and that she saw two of her friends, including Ms Knightley, lying on the ground covered in blood.
Police declined to give a motive for the attack, saying they were still investigating.
According to his roommate, Kristin Christenson, 33, who lived with him for seven years, a search warrant was executed at Mr Smith’s apartment over the weekend.
Mr Smith, a machinist, has become more and more radical in recent years, Ms Christensen said.
“He talked all the time about wanting to shoot people, how much he hates Antifa, Black Lives Matter and ‘those damn commies,’” she said.
Ms. Christensen said Mr. Smith wore a shirt that said “Kyle Rittenhouse, True Patriot,” meaning a man from Illinois who was acquitted in a criminal case after he fatally shot two men and wounded another during protests against police behavior in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020.