Arizona Lawmaker Blasts Congressional Democrats As ‘Pandering Idiots,’ Calls Tucson Murders ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’

An Arizona state lawmaker with a background in military counterterrorism operations and law enforcement blasted Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation Thursday after they participated in a U.S. House tribute to two men murdered outside a Tucson gay bar.

State Rep. John Gillette (R-LD30) described the Aug. 31 shooting as “radical Islamic terrorism” and accused Democrats of supporting America’s enemies in a comment responding to Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ04).

Disgusting, you mourn the death of a person that is gay and call it equality. You are bunch of pandering idiots.

We mourn the death of an American citizen, killed by radical Islamic terrorism on our own soil.

The democrats invited these terrorists to the US that we were sent…

— Rep. John Gillette AZ House LD30 (@AzRepGillette) September 3, 2026

“Disgusting, you mourn the death of a person that is gay and call it equality,” Gillette wrote. “You are bunch of pandering idiots.”

Gillette said the victims should be mourned as American citizens and characterized the murders as “radical Islamic terrorism on our own soil.” He also alleged that Democrats brought terrorists into the United States and have “Partnerships with the enemy.”

Gillette’s post did not include evidence connecting the gunman to a terrorist organization or identifying the immigration program through which he entered the country.

The rebuke came after Stanton said he joined Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ07), members of Arizona’s congressional delegation and the Congressional Equality Caucus for a moment of silence on the House floor.

Stanton said in his Wednesday post that the observance honored Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara, who were murdered “in a hate crime targeting the LGBTQ+ community.”

Grijalva led the Sept. 2 House observance. During her floor remarks, she linked the murders to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and gun violence and called for Congress to enact additional federal gun-control legislation.

Siqueiros, 42, and Capara, 33, were confronted and fatally shot at approximately 12:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Venture-N, a longstanding gay bar on North Sixth Avenue, according to the Tucson Police Department’s account of the shooting.

Police identified the gunman as 44-year-old Ousman Ceesay. Investigators said Ceesay shot himself with the same 9mm handgun after killing the two men. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Ceesay did not know either victim and never attempted to enter the bar, police said. Investigators found him carrying a note listing several LGBTQ-associated businesses in the Tucson area.

Detectives subsequently searched Ceesay’s residence and found another note indicating he acted alone and committed a “targeted attack motivated by hate toward the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Police contacted the businesses identified on Ceesay’s list and reported no known continuing threat to the community.

The publicly released findings classify the murders as an anti-LGBTQ hate crime. Tucson police have not described the shooting as terrorism, identified a connection between Ceesay and an extremist organization or attributed the attack to his religious beliefs.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that Ceesay was born in The Gambia and lived in Oklahoma before recently moving to Tucson. Records reviewed by the newspaper placed him in Oklahoma by 2011 and showed that he married an Oklahoma woman in 2012. The Department of Homeland Security told the newspaper it had no information to share concerning Ceesay.

Voting records reviewed by the Daily Star listed Ceesay as a registered Democrat in Oklahoma.

Ceesay’s cousin, Muhammad Sylva, later told the Daily Star that Ceesay entered the United States on a student visa approximately 17 years ago, during the Obama Administration, to attend college in Oklahoma. Sylva said Ceesay became a naturalized American citizen during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Sylva described Ceesay as a practicing Muslim who prayed regularly and participated in religious fasts. He said his cousin’s religious practice was not extreme and that he had never heard Ceesay express hatred toward gay people.

The cousin’s account identifies Ceesay’s immigration pathway as a student visa followed by naturalization. No publicly released government record has identified Ceesay as a refugee or shown that he entered through an admission program created by the Biden administration.

The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the killings as a hate crime and extended condolences to the victims’ families, according to the Daily Star.

Gillette represents Mohave County-based Legislative District 30 and chairs the Arizona House Federalism, Military Affairs and Elections Committee, according to his official legislative profile.

Gillette is as a retired Army Command Sergeant Major who specialized in counterterrorism operations and human-intelligence collection. He is also a Bronze Star Medal recipient and previously served in law enforcement.

Tucson police said the homicide investigation remains open and asked anyone with relevant surveillance or doorbell-camera footage to contact investigators.