Accused Chico library shooter flashes hateful ‘white power’ symbol in first court appearance since killing 2 59%

By Brad Appleton0% Ross O'Keefe0%

6/25/2026, 4:21:03 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Confirmation Bias, and Negativity Bias, with Unattributed Quote as the most egregious example at 43.4% saturation with 125 hits. Analysis detected 995 faulty-reasoning hits from 288 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 55.4% and a BS Rank of 59% (9,038 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 58.70% of the article peer group.

The teen accused of opening fire and killing two inside a Butte County Library continued his campaign of hate by flashing the “white power” sign in court. 
Bradley Scott Sayer, 18, was in court in Chico, California Thursday. 
Sayer’s arms were shackled during the hearing and he was dressed in yellow long-sleeved jail garb with grey sweat pants. 
As he entered the courtroom, Sayer flashed a hand sign associated with “white power. 
” 
Sayer wrote “Natural Selection” in black marker on his white T-shirt in a bid to mimic the Columbine High School shooters during Tuesday’s attack, officials said. 
Cops said the shirt represented his obsession with the massacre. 
Columbine shooter Eric Harris wore a similar shirt as he committed an atrocity at his Colorado high school in 1999. 
Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said Sayer was a “fan” of the killing and ones like it. 
“The suspect was a fan, and a fan for some time, of social media involving Columbine-type shootings, the school shootings, and had unfortunately a deep dive into that social media community, and obviously lost his way in that and decided yesterday to act in copycat,” Ramsey said. 
Library staff heroically rushed the patrons of the building to safety, officials said, and Sayer allegedly fled the scene. 
Arriving law enforcement seized Sayer outside the building without any use of force, officials said. 
The entire incident only lasted around four minutes from the first 911 calls to Sayer’s arrest, Chico Chief of police Billy Aldridge said. 
Eight rounds were fired, and the shotgun used was recovered at the scene. 
Two other firearms were found in Sayer’s vehicle. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 34.7%Brad Appleton: 3.3%California Post: 4.1%Confirmation Bias34.7%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.6%California Post: 1.4%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 32.3%Brad Appleton: 8.3%California Post: 4.2%Availability Heuristic32.3%This article: 6.9%Brad Appleton: 0.6%California Post: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic6.9%This article: 16.3%Brad Appleton: 2.2%California Post: 0.8%Hindsight Bias16.3%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 1.0%California Post: 2.2%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 19.8%Brad Appleton: 8.6%California Post: 10.3%Framing Effect19.8%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.3%California Post: 0.9%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.6%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 1.8%California Post: 2.5%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.5%California Post: 1.5%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 34.7%Brad Appleton: 14.3%California Post: 16.0%Negativity Bias34.7%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 2.8%California Post: 2.4%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 3.5%Brad Appleton: 1.4%California Post: 1.5%Fundamental Attribution Error3.5%This article: 6.9%Brad Appleton: 0.3%California Post: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias6.9%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 1.2%California Post: 1.6%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 1.1%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 6.4%California Post: 3.1%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.7%California Post: 0.6%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 8.0%Brad Appleton: 2.4%California Post: 1.6%Recency Bias8.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.3%California Post: 0.5%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.9%California Post: 2.6%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.5%Straw Man0.0%This article: 26.7%Brad Appleton: 5.6%California Post: 4.2%Appeal to Authority26.7%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.2%California Post: 1.5%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.9%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 6.9%Brad Appleton: 0.8%California Post: 5.5%Hasty Generalization6.9%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.7%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.5%California Post: 1.4%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 37.8%Brad Appleton: 14.7%California Post: 8.9%Appeal to Emotion37.8%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 1.1%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 16.3%Brad Appleton: 2.7%California Post: 2.7%Post Hoc (False Cause)16.3%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 9.4%Brad Appleton: 1.6%California Post: 0.8%Burden of Proof9.4%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.2%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 3.6%California Post: 3.6%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.0%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 4.9%Brad Appleton: 2.5%California Post: 2.0%Ambiguity (Equivocation)4.9%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.2%California Post: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.4%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 43.4%Brad Appleton: 2.6%California Post: 3.2%Unattributed Quote43.4%This article: 5.6%Brad Appleton: 2.0%California Post: 2.1%Quote-first Misdirection5.6%This article: 31.3%Brad Appleton: 8.6%California Post: 13.1%Biased Writer Voice31.3%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.3%California Post: 1.4%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 0.4%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 0.0%California Post: 3.0%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brad Appleton: 4.8%California Post: 6.0%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

288 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers31%attributed speech200writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 16 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 27 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 14 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 1 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 26 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageMichael Ramsey • 18 words • 100.0% coverageMichael Ramsey • 47 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 15 words • 100.0% coverageBilly Aldridge • 23 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 8 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Michael Ramsey

100%flagged-word coverage
65 attributed words74% of attributed speech84% writer coverage
0%37.5%75.0%Biased Writer Voice+50.8 ptsWriter: 21.5%Michael Ramsey: 72.3%72.3%Unattributed Quote-14.3 ptsWriter: 42.0%Michael Ramsey: 27.7%27.7%Quote-first Misdirection-8.0 ptsWriter: 8.0%Michael Ramsey: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.