An avowed white supremacist in suburban St. Louis came under federal investigation after sending a glowing fan letter to incarcerated mass shooter Brenton Tarrant, who in 2019 slaughtered 51 worshippers in two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques, allegedly congratulating him on his staggering body count and promising to carry on exterminating as many “invaders” as possible.
That’s according to an FBI search warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast, which suggests swift action by the FBI may have headed off an eventual catastrophe.
“Based on my training, knowledge, and experience, the characteristics of [Chris] Dufrenne as described by his parents, former girlfriend, and former roommate are consistent with those of people known to law enforcement to have committed or attempted to commit mass casualty shootings,” the affidavit states.
Dufrenne first came to the attention of federal authorities in late 2022, according to the affidavit.
“You kicked ass out there!” Dufrenne, a St. Charles, Missouri resident, wrote to Tarrant in his Wellington prison cell, the affidavit says. “New Zealand should be thanking you for dispatching those would-be bombers. I’ve read your manifesto several times. It’s really good. You really fleshed out our philosophy.”
Chris Dufrenne asked mass murderer Brenton Tarrant to know what it was like to kill.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Dufrenne, an unemployed 32-year-old whose father described him to law enforcement as “a loner who has no friends nor romantic interests” and who “spends a great deal of his time playing computer games,” further lauded Tarrant for livestreaming the gruesome massacres in real time, the affidavit states.
“That video was really something man,” Dufrenne wrote in the typewritten letter, which was postmarked Nov. 7, 2022, about two years after Tarrant was sentenced to life without parole. “Right from the heart… You got third in the international shooter scoreboard, mate!”
Dufrenne, who said he had played Brutal Doom, an online first-person shooter game, with Tarrant in 2010, asked him to write back “and describe what it felt like to kill,” according to the affidavit.
“I’ll carry on the fight for our people,” the affidavit says Dufrenne wrote, signing off, “Your teammate always, Chris.”
Prison officials in New Zealand intercepted the letter, and, alarmed, notified the FBI on Nov. 28, 2022 according to the affidavit. Tarrant’s ghastly rampage led New Zealand to tighten its gun laws in response.
Agents looked into Dufrenne’s background, and saw that he had recently been a suspect in an “unlawful use of weapon” incident in St. Charles City, Missouri, the affidavit states.
“On November 5, 2022, Dufrenne was reported as behaving oddly and as having made threatening movements with a dagger towards a woman as she left the Trails of Sunbrook apartment complex,” it says, noting that Dufrenne and the woman both lived at the same complex. “… The victim reported that she was driving out of the complex, when a man authorities believed to be Dufrenne, began reversing from a parking space in her path. Both vehicles stopped and no collision occurred.”
Dufrenne, however, wasn’t ready to let it go, according to the affidavit.
“The victim proceeded on her way to the exit, all the while Dufrenne was tailgating her and repeatedly honking his horn,” it says. “As the victim neared a stop sign, she stopped her vehicle and lowered her car window. She asked Dufrenne if he needed something. The victim reported the man, driving the vehicle later determined to be registered to Dufrenne, got out of his car and approached her vehicle. He had a large dagger unsheathed and in his hand at his side. When the victim saw the dagger, she closed her window and quickly drove off, fearing for her safety.”
A WhatsApp message from a terrified survivor of the Christchurch massacre—which allegedly inspired Chris Dufrenne.
Edgar Su/Reuters
The woman “later experienced a panic attack because of the encounter,” but did not immediately contact police. She did call the cops a week later, when she spotted Dufrenne outside her building—he lived in a separate building on the property—taking pictures of her vehicle and apartment, according to the affidavit.
“Despite finally reporting Dufrenne’s actions to law enforcement, she feared Dufrenne would retaliate against her for seeking prosecution and she ultimately decided not to press charges,” it states.
A pair of FBI agents spoke to the leasing manager of the complex, who said Dufrenne had been the subject of “multiple complaints” by other tenants, the affidavit goes on. In one instance, Dufrenne was accused of “egging” a neighbor’s door, it says. In others, Dufrenne allegedly knocked on female tenants’ doors, and when they answered, he would stand there, “just staring at them and not speaking,” according to the affidavit.
The two agents then went to Dufrenne’s apartment, hoping to speak with him.
“After knocking on his door twice, with a reasonable time in between knocking, we heard the sound of a shotgun being cycled inside the apartment door,” the affidavit states, adding, “Dufrenne did not open the door.”
In a meeting with the FBI, Dufrenne’s father described his son as a “troubled young man,” according to the affidavit. It says both of Dufrenne’s parents “confirmed Dufrenne was in possession of a pump-action shotgun,” and told investigators that Dufrenne “previously suffered from addictions to alcohol, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine.” At the same time, they “denied that Dufrenne previously underwent mental health evaluations and that he was prone to violence,” the affidavit states.
However, a check of police records revealed a call by Dufrenne’s parents to the St. Charles County Police Department in 2017, reporting that Dufrenne had attacked his dad and held a knife to his throat, the affidavit says. Both swore out affidavits against their son, who was taken to a local hospital by police for a mental health evaluation, according to the affidavit. Dufrenne was later arrested on a domestic assault charge, but the case was dropped when his mom and dad failed to appear in court.
When the agents spoke to Dufrenne’s ex-girlfriend and former roommate, both recounted witnessing similarly violent tendencies, and “both expressed concerns about their safety for talking with us,” according to the affidavit. The ex-girlfriend said she and Dufrenne lived together for two years, and broke up in March 2021. A few months later, she said, Dufrenne began sending her “obsessive” text messages, “calling her a goddess and saying he couldn’t live without her,” the affidavit states. “She then blocked his number, to prevent future contact.”
According to the FBI, Chris Dufrenne lauded Brenton Tarrant for the ghastly rampage that killed 51 people.
Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images
The ex-girlfriend and the former roommate each described Dufrenne as “psycho,” and “delusional,” the affidavit says. Dufrenne had “previously accused [the ex-roommate] of being an operative for the Central Intelligence Agency or FBI and that he was sent to spy on Dufrenne,” it says, noting, “To my knowledge, there have been no prior investigations of him by either agency.” The former roommate also said that Dufrenne believed he and the rest of humanity were living in a simulation. Asked if she considered Dufrenne a threat, and if his threats were a cause for concern, the ex-girlfriend said she would be “very concerned,” if she were them, and advised the agents to take the matter “very seriously,” according to the affidavit.
“She stated it was her opinion that if Dufrenne is researching things of this nature, he is likely ‘considering doing something,’” the affidavit states, adding that Dufrenne “has concerned her so much over the years that she occasionally checks the news when a violent incident happens to see if Dufrenne was involved.”
On Dec. 2, 2022, as Dufrenne walked out of his apartment, St. Charles County Sheriff’s Deputies took him into custody on a mental health warrant, according to the affidavit. Police found a seven-inch dagger in a holster on his hip, believed to be the one he threatened his neighbor with, the affidavit says. Dufrenne, who was taken to Mercy Hospital for psychiatric observation, “gave verbal consent to unlock his apartment and place the dagger inside after he was told the hospital would not allow weapons,” says the affidavit. Upon entering, FBI agents also on the scene spotted a black pump-action shotgun on a chair, the affidavit says. Dufrenne’s father agreed to go to his son’s place and “remove any firearms or large knives that have no daily household purpose,” according to the affidavit.
In a subsequent interview with the FBI, Dufrenne was wearing a pendant around his neck, which he described to agents as “a Slavic warrior’s symbol known as a ‘Kolovrat,’” the affidavit states. It says it is used “as a hate symbol by ‘Far-right groups in a number of Slavic countries, mainly Russia and Ukraine, and they use the Kolovrat in place of a swastika.’”
About a week after he was detained, Dufrenne was transferred to the Hyland Behavioral Health Center. During the process, Dufrenne inquired about a flash drive he took with him to Mercy, but hadn’t mentioned. Agents seized the drive, on which the affidavit says they found an encrypted file that turned out to be “a digital copy of the letter Dufrenne wrote to Brenton Tarrant.”
The status of the case is unclear from court records; Dufrenne has not been federally charged with any crime related to the Tarrant letter. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office where the search warrant application was filed declined to comment on Friday.
Seamus Hughes, a senior faculty member at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE), said the case “has all the hallmarks of seriously concerning behavior.”
“We’ve unfortunately seen time and time again that mass murderers such as Tarrant act as inspiration for others,” Hughes told The Daily Beast. “Followers idolize their violent actions, and consider them ‘martyrs’ or ‘saints’ for the cause.”
Dufrenne does not have an attorney listed in court records, and was unable to be reached for comment.
