A San Diego native fighting for ISIS in Syria was killed over the weekend, according to the Free Syrian Army. NBC News reported Tuesday that a passport and tattoo positively identified the body as that of Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33. Calling himself “Duale ThaslaveofAllah” on Facebook and Twitter, he declared “It’s Islam over everything.” In 2004, McCain “reverted” to Islam, according to his Twitter. “I’m with the brothers now,” he tweeted on June 9.
McCain was once an aspiring rapper in a blue-collar Minnesota neighborhood. His high-school classmates described him as a “goofball” and “always smiling.” He had multiple run-ins with police and was convicted of obstruction and disorderly conduct. McCain started school at San Diego City College and worked at a Somali restuarant in the city. “He was a normal guy, who was social, open-minded, like to smile always, and always wanted to be a good Muslim,” said a person who knew him from the restaurant.
McCain actively tweeted, and his messages ranged from homophobic hate to just plain stupid. In Janaury 2013, he tweeted “Why do these fags keep saying that they were born gay no bitch you choose to put a dick in your ass just saying.” In December 2012, he tweeted “Wallahi I wants fried chicken.” However, his account went silent from January 2013 until the spring of this year. McCain appears to have gone to Turkey, which is a popular jihadi route to Syria. He is among hundreds of Westerners believed to have joined ISIS’s war in Syria and Iraq, like Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, the British man suspected of beheading of James Foley.