'Reformed racist' reflects on time in KKK following mass shootings in New York, California

ORLANDO, Fla. - Scott Shepherd was in the Ku Klux Klan for 20 years. He is now an anti-racist activist and speaks around the country, recently in Central Florida. He gave FOX 35 News some insight into what the shooters in California and New York this weekend may have been thinking. 

"I was just full of anger and that turned into hatred, and I just started looking for a place to fit in," said Shepherd. He found that place in the Ku Klux Klan back in the 1980s. 

Shepherd just last month shared his story at the Holocaust Center of Florida in Maitland. He said when he found himself in jail and at an alcohol and drug treatment center, he said he started to become a "reformed racist." "I went in one person and came out another. It was a seed that was planted there," said Shepherd. 

When he sees shootings like those that happened this weekend, he feels a pang. "I have a deep, deep feeling of guilt. A pit in my stomach."

Security expert Dave Benson is a retired senior U.S. State Department agent who specializes in threat assessment. He says social media is just part of the dangerous cocktail contributing to the radicalization of young people and the uptick in mass shootings and hate crimes nationally. "Within social media, they get comfort and support. In some cases, they’re actually pushed to commit violent acts," said Benson.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the state of Florida has the second-highest number of hate groups in the country after California, with a total of 53. 

FOX 35 asked Shepherd what it’s like in the mind of an extremist. "They think they’re doing the right thing and what they’re doing is on the positive side, and it’s going to do something, and it’s going to be a good thing. But it’s not."