Murdered InfoWars reporter Jamie White refused to move out of unsafe Austin neighborhood, friends reveal

Daily Mail, UK/March 17, 2025

By Susan Greene

On Sunday, March 9, InfoWars reporter Jamie White spent his day as usual, covering the weekend news shift for Alex Jones's controversial website.

Working out of the outlet's headquarters in Austin, Texas, he wrote four articles about issues he and fellow conservatives perceive as threats to American liberties, before returning to his apartment in South Austin.

Later that night, at home alone, White either heard or spotted someone trying to break into his car in the parking lot below.

Shirtless, he ran downstairs to stop the would-be thief, marking the second time a carjacker attempts to steal his modest Kia Soul since December.

That decision would prove to be fatal.

Within seconds, White was unconscious, his head in a pool of blood from a bullet wound.

A neighbor – alarmed by the single gunshot fired shortly after hearing someone sprinting down the staircase of their apartment building – went outside, saw the journalist lifeless on the pavement, noticed a car screeching away into the darkness, and called 911.

'It was intense, an intense scene for sure,' that caller, who feared being named for security reasons, said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.

White, 36, was pronounced dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital shortly after midnight Monday.

The neighbor described finding White shirtless in the parking lot with a puddle of fresh blood around his head. He said paramedics later arrived at the scene and removed White's pants, leaving them behind as they rushed off with his body.

White's employer, InfoWars founder Jones, announced the news of his killing on-air hours later and spent much of the week spinning the cold case into the latest of his many conspiracy stories, claiming it was a targeted attack.

But locals have since blasted those theories, suggesting White was simply another casualty of the violent crime plaguing the area, which has recently become a common site for carjackings and break-ins.

Even White's sister Kelly Kneale said she believed it was a random attack. 'omeonne was attempting to break into his car,' she said.

And despite the safety concerns and warnings from friends, White had refused to relocate to a safer neighborhood despite warnings and safety concerns, a pal told DailyMail.com.

The far-right journalist lived a few miles from InfoWars' studios, in the Chandelier Apartments, where one-bedroom units like his rent for $900 to $1,100 a month.

Despite its swank name, some residents told DailyMail.com the apartment complex is a hub for methamphetamine deals.

Police data show 57 crimes were reported there last year, including aggravated assaults, but no homicides.

'I'm more considered the problem around here, not murderers,' Dana Geddie, 54, a prostitute who works the alley behind a strip center just north of the apartments, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.

'It's not the best neighborhood, but it's affordable,' added the 911 caller who has lived in the same eight-unit building overlooking a pool and barbecue area for about two to three years without ever speaking with White.

Neighbor Wilmer Amador Zamora said he has occupied a unit diagonal from the writer's apartment for nine months, also without meeting him.

'People are like that around here,' he said in Spanish.

The neighbor who called the police the night of the shooting admitted he didn't know of White's politics, let alone his name, but said he is frustrated that his own boss is spreading lies about his killing.

'People are going to say what they're going to say, even if it's not the truth,' he said.

Their building is close to the entrance of the complex where a parked car this week has a fresh hole in its back window, believed to be from a recent break-in attempt.

Two of White's neighbors said their own cars have been broken into recently, and one noticed White vacuuming glass from his Kia earlier this winter after a thief smashed one of its windows.

White's friend and coworker, fellow InfoWars writer Adan Salazar, told DailyMail.com that he and his wife Racheal urged him to move out of a complex they considered too dangerous.

He said White refused because he was saving money in preparation for 'the incoming financial collapse that'll probably happen.'

Instead of paying higher rent in a safer neighborhood or upgrading from his shabby, moss-colored Kia to a more edgy Dodge Challenger, which he fancied, Salazar said White was investing in silver and gold as a way of 'getting ready' for looming economic end times.

Salazar figures that White's frustration about having to pay $1,500 to repair his Kia from the December break-in may have led him to run into the parking lot, unarmed, Sunday night to confront yet another car thief.

'He was probably like, "I'll be damned if that happens again,"' he said.

'I think it was like a fight or flight response, like a split second decision, whereas if he had called me I'd have said, "Grab your gun or call the cops".'

Austin Police Detective Jason Jones (no relation to Alex) – who is leading the homicide investigation – declined to comment on conspiracy theories at a news conference Wednesday.

Rather, he said that police identified the vehicle used to flee the scene after it was abandoned nearby.

He confirmed the car was stolen and, like White's, was also made by Kia, whose models from 2011 to 2022 lacked engine immobilizers, making them easy targets for thieves.

The detective said his team also found drops of blood among the shattered glass in White's car from the window broken by the would-be thief.

The city is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for anyone who comes forward with information leading to the conviction of White's killer.

Whether there's one perpetrator or two, the detective warned that whoever was involved is 'known to be armed and have no regard for human life'.

Days after the fatal shooting, Jones – citing articles by White that allegedly landed him on a Ukrainian enemies list – planted suspicion among conservative followers that one of his star reporters was the target of a political assassination ordered by that country's government or its liberal allies here in the U.S.

'There's a chance, good chance, it could be [a hit job],' Jones told far-right pundit Benny Johnson in a YouTube video posted Tuesday.

'The more I'm talking about it, the more I'm thinking about it. A lot of smart people are calling me saying, "Alex, This is…eight people have been killed in the last two months here since the first of the year."

'Okay? What are the chances in a town of over two million people that an Infowars lead reporter gets butchered?'

Jones also pointed the finger at progressive philanthropist George Soros for funding the campaign of José Garza, the Democratic prosecutor in Travis County who conservatives have criticized as being too soft on local crime.

'I lay all of this squarely at the feet of Soros and of the sort of crime syndicate of the Democratic Party,' Jones said in an emotional video Monday afternoon.

'They are the ones that administratively cut the police, prosecuted the police, and even cases that are 100% clear to be lawful, legal activities.'

District Attorney Garza has since slammed the media personality for spreading rumors about the unsolved homicide of his coworker.

Garza's office, in a statement, called InfoWars' baseless theories 'shameful,' adding that it's 'not surprising that Alex Jones is trying to exploit the victims' death for political gain'.

White is survived by his father, Douglas White and younger sister, Kelly Kneale, both of whom he spent Christmas with in Ohio, friends say.

His mother, Jeanne White, died nine years ago at age 56.

White earned a psychology degree from Ohio University and moved to North Carolina before taking a job with Jones in Austin.

Friends say the self-proclaimed patriot and freedom fighter loved his work in far-right politics beyond all else.

He read history, went to movies, worked out, and played everything from Liszt to dark metal on a keyboard in his rare spare time, and recently had been online dating in hopes of finding a woman with whom he could start a family.

'Jamie was a unique character – mostly reserved and kept to himself, but became goofy and silly when he trusted and opened up with you,' said Yecca Aaron, a silver and gold dealer in Bastrop who befriended the writer after years of admiring his daily InfoWars articles.

White had filed his last InfoWars story eleven hours before his death.

It was about Romania banning far-right politician Călin Georgescu from running in the second round of that country's presidential election.

With the handle @WhiteIsTheFury, White was active on several mainstream and right-wing social media platforms, often reposting messages by white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

His employer's recent remarks wouldn't be the first time Alex Jones had shared controversial comments and theories in the wake of a tragedy.

Jones is notorious for claiming that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School — which killed 20 children and six adults — was, along with the September 11 terror attacks, and the Oklahoma City bombing, a hoax.

In 2022, he was ordered to pay $1.4billion after juries found him guilty of defaming victims' families, whom he referred to as 'paid crisis actors.'

Late last year, the satirical news source the Onion, along with the Sandy Hook families who Jones defamed, successfully bid on InfoWars to cover the damages.

A federal judge rejected the sale and ownership reverted back to Jones, who has declared personal bankruptcy.

White's body is being held by Travis County medical examiner's office while the police investigation is pending.

Although the Salazars are well aware of the history of car break-ins and violence at White's apartment complex, they embrace other suspicions about his killing.

'Jamie would expect this kind of scrutiny,' Adan said.

'We're not dismissing any theory completely,' Racheal added. 'He would want us all fighting for the truth, fighting to find out what really happened to him.'