by Staff Reporter | Mar 27, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The transgender Muslim Antifa activist whom Attorney General Kris Mayes declined to prosecute for a 2024 murder has once again threatened gun violence ahead of scheduled anti-Trump protests.
Sumayyah Dawud posted the threat on Facebook last week. Dawud fatally shot Paul Franco, 51, on July 4, 2024.
By Franco’s girlfriend’s account, Franco was shot while defending Renteria from Dawud and other pro-Palestine protesters that had followed them home. By the protesters’ account, Franco instigated the confrontation, and was shot after he attacked a protester who assaulted Renteria.
In his most recent post, Dawud included a quote from Malcom X which warns that freedom doesn’t come peacefully.
“Armed resistance is the answer to oppression and violence,” said Dawud. “Not love, hugs, and peace with our enemies.”
Dawud identifies as a woman. His former aliases were Britney Erica Austin and Eric Austin.
Following Franco’s slaying, Dawud had his counsel through the People’s Law Firm submit a letter to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) defending the shooting as self-defense, as reported by ABC15.
After some investigating, Phoenix Police Department (PPD) executed a search warrant on Dawud’s home. At the beginning of last year, PPD stated probable cause existed to charge Dawud with murder. Specifically, PPD recommended filing charges for second-degree murder and discharging a firearm within city limits.
Attorney General Mayes received this recommendation sometime around January 2025. The MCAO also referred the case to Mayes. Their agency recused itself because Dawud was involved in an ongoing lawsuit against them and PPD over his arrest during a Black Lives Matter riot in 2020.
Mayes’ office has not acted on those referrals. Without any charges pending, Dawud is free to attend another protest that could turn violent, based on the previous No Kings protests across the Valley last year.
Dawud issued his most recent comment advocating for gun violence just days before another series of scheduled No Kings protests are to occur.
Renteria recalled how Dawud approached Franco and shot him.
“I just remember a black shadow just walking up to Paul and then shooting him,” said Renteria.
In another post from last month, Dawud expressed a desire to burn down the planned ICE facility in Surprise.
“I am glad that ICE facility being built in Surprise was vandalized,” said Dawud. “Too bad it wasn’t burned to the f*****g ground.”
Per his social media posts, Dawud has been a constant presence at protests outside of ICE facilities.
In a recent post discussing white colonialism, Dawud made the argument that white people needed to martyr themselves for black and brown people, especially during protests. Franco, who Dawud shot, was a man of color and a father.
“White people have the most privilege. White people are occupying stolen land. And for the most part, white people don’t do s**t,” said Dawud. “There’s nothing a White person experiences here on Turtle Island that a person of color doesn’t experience ten times worse.”
Turtle Island refers to a Native American name for North America.
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by Matthew Holloway | Jul 26, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Reporting from The Post Millennial’s Senior Editor Andy Ngô revealed this month that on July 4th, a “pro-Palestinian” protester shot and killed Paul Franco, 51, after a fight broke out between him, his girlfriend Stephanie Renteria, and protesters in Phoenix, AZ.
According to Ngô, Renteria said Franco was killed defending her. “I just remember a black shadow just walking up to Paul and then shooting him,” she said.
Phoenix police reportedly served a search warrant on the home of a person of interest in the murder, widely reported as woman. However, Ngô reported Wednesday, “the person being investigated for allegedly shooting dead the 51-year-old Latino father is Muslim trans Antifa member Sumayyah Dawud, a man previously known as Britney Erica Austin and originally, Eric Austin.”
Ngô added that Muslim groups who had previously defended Austin cut him off after discovering his identity as a ‘transgender’ man.
In a report posted to X, Ngô went on to reveal that Austin has historically been involved with BLM-Antifa extremism dating back to the widespread 2020 riots adding that he is a “a fundamentalist Muslim sympathetic to radical Islam,” and has sued the Phoenix Police Department in the past for removing his Muslim facial covering during an arrest. Austin has reportedly claimed he was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Franco. Shared video footage from 12News and footage from a June 15th action that found Austin, now known as Sumayyah Dawud taking part of a mob action against a Scottsdale restaurant.
Resist the Mainstream posted that “Sumayyah Dawud, a man previously known as Britney Erica Austin and originally, Eric Austin, has a long history of far-left extremism and is sympathetic to radical Islam, according to Ngo,” and posted social media comments of “Dawud” extolling the virtues of armed extremism saying, “radical folx (sic) who get in the streets & engage in high risk direct actions and /or do direct confrontation against fascists/white supremacists need to be armed.”
Per AZFamily, Franco and Renteria were walking home from the Fabulous Phoenix Fourth event at Steele Indian School Park and Renteria became embroiled in an argument with the protesters near Camelback Road and Central Avenue. The verbal dispute then devolved into a physical altercation. Within minutes, Paul Franco was shot several times in front of the apartment complex where he lived. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
AZFamily, citing Phoenix PD, reported “a woman they believed was involved in the shooting was taken in for questioning, then released without any charges being filed, claiming self-defense.”
As reported by ABC15, cell phone video obtained by the outlet shows Franco and Renteria shouting at the pro-Palestine protesters near Steele Indian School Park that evening. Both Franco’s family and Austin claim they were acting in self-defense. Another man, one of the protestors was reportedly stabbed.
In an interview with 12News, Renteria explained that after Phoenix Police broke up the initial argument with the protesters, she and Franco returned to their apartment. The protesters followed them. She told the reporters, “We threw eggs, and they threw rocks at us. And after they threw rocks, some of them jumped the wall.” She said that several of them followed a car into the complex’s private property and that she was confronted and punched by an unidentified woman.
“I just remember a lady coming up to me, and she said, ‘You threw a f’ing egg at me,’ and then she hit me.”
According to Phoenix PD, Austin stated that he fired on Franco in self-defense. Renteria however adamantly told 12News that Franco did not fire first and was shot and killed defending her.
“It was them. It was them that fired first. I just remember a black shadow just walking up to Paul and then shooting him,” she said.
Renteria told 12News “People could just come into your property and claim self-defense. It’s scary.” She added, “I want the people that assaulted us to be charged. I want some type of justice.”
In a post to X, Ngô wrote, “The family of the Phoenix man shot dead by a trans Antifa member following a Palestine direct action believe the @PhoenixPolice are afraid of charging him.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
