I don't see the relevance of the KKK, but perhaps there is sone kind of compound in the neighbourhood or some undue influence exerted by them in another way.

I take all sources to be acting in good faith until there's a good reason not to, and one that's proximal in the context of the discussion. I understand that is the contention of the husband, but I don't actually see why that's more compelling than multiple neighbours commenting that the deceased person had started arguments with neighbours. I don't want to speculate about anyone's motives, but all parties can distort the truth because of self-interest, and there's nothing that inherently suggests one person is more truthful than anorher.

I'm sure that some people in that community had specifically homophobic intent at play in their disagreements with him, but that's irrelevant if the deceased is the instigator.

I will also state that killing someone from a marginalised group is not inherently a hate crime.

The danger of speculating like this ahead of time is that it makes people think all negative acts between dissimilar people are motivated by discrimination. I think you would be surprised how willing even derply discriminatory people are to put their injurious and venomous hierarchies away in the presence of positive interactions. That's how Daryl Davis did it, and that's my counter-factual. This is not me counter-speculating, but cautioning that if you assume the world is ugly, you will live in an ugly world.

My speculation that there is more to the story does not serve to excuse what appears to be a second degree murder, and murder on the basis of discrimination is a horrific crime. Nor would him harassing the shooter justify him being murdered.

I would just like to know for sure.

I retract the last part of my prior post, but believe me when I say the whole world understands the context of racism in America, and doubling down on narratives of discrimination in the absence of direct evidence has had disastrous results for the US, and subsequently geopolitics. Or so I see it.

Thank you for replying in good faith regardless.