In the hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, details about his attacker remained elusive, and social media users and live TV commentary filled the void with false information.
As of late afternoon on September 11, the day after the shooting at Utah Valley University, where Kirk had been speaking, authorities did not have the shooter in custody and had not released any suspect’s name.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation agents “have been working around the clock in coordination with our law enforcement partners,” FBI special agent Robert Bohls said during a news conference on Thursday. “We are and will continue to work nonstop until we find the person that has committed this heinous crime and find out why they did it.”
Two people were taken into custody on the day of the shooting, but neither was the culprit, and both were released.
The FBI released images on Thursday of a “person of interest” and asked the public for help identifying the attacker.
Here’s a rundown of what didn’t happen, despite claims to the contrary.
No evidence the sniper might have been a Kirk supporter
About an hour after the shooting, before Kirk’s death was announced, political commentator Matthew Dowd suggested during an MSNBC broadcast that the sniper could have been a Kirk supporter.
“We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration or – so we have no idea about this,” Dowd said.
While the attacker remains at large, there is no evidence that the person was a Kirk supporter or someone celebrating.
State and federal authorities said a sniper fired a single shot from a high-powered bolt-action rifle that was later recovered in a wooded area outside the university campus. A university spokesperson said law enforcement believes the person fired from the roof of a building some distance from Kirk.
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Dowd was fired hours later for his comments, which also included statements about Kirk using “hateful words” that led to “hateful actions”. MSNBC and Dowd both apologised for the rhetoric.
George Zinn was taken into custody, but is not the attacker
Immediately after the shooting, videos of a bald man being dragged away by law enforcement officers circulated widely on X. People sharing the videos said the man’s name was George Zinn.
Zinn was initially taken into custody, authorities said, but he was released and charged with obstruction by police.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Zinn disrupted events in the past and has a criminal record dating to the 1980s. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told the newspaper that Zinn was often arrested “on suspicion of trespassing” and was “politically conservative, leaning libertarian”.
Michael Mallinson, a 77-year-old Canadian man, was not the shooter
An image of a different bald man also went viral.
An X post with more than 992,000 views said, “The assassination attempt on Charlie Kirk was allegedly carried out by Michael Mallinson, a member of the Utah Democratic Party, Fox News reported”.
That claim was unfounded.
Mallinson said he is a 77-year-old retired banker “who lived and was in Toronto”, The New York Times reported after interviewing him. The rumour may have originated from an X account impersonating a Fox broadcast affiliate, The Times reported.
The fact-checking website, Lead Stories, found that the image was posted in 2020 on X by an account with Mallinson’s name. That account was unavailable on September 11.
Sam Hyde, a 40-year-old comedian, is not the sniper. It’s a recycled meme
A meme has been recycled for almost a decade to push disinformation about the identity of mass shooting suspects in the US and abroad. The meme features a real-life comedian whose name and photos have repeatedly been used by internet hoaxers. Once again, after Kirk’s death, the meme circulated on social media.
“Charlie Kirk shooter and Palestinian sympathizer Sam Hyde identified as shooter,” said a September 10 X post showing an image of a man with a rifle.
Another X post on Wednesday shared a video of the same man with a gun and footage of him shooting outdoors. The caption said: “Video of Charlie Kirk shooter now surfaces after the incident and the shooter is identified as Samuel Hackmann. Watch as he warns about the devastation he will be causing.”
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The video and images show Samuel Hyde, now 40, a comedian. One of the images of Hyde with a rifle is from a 2016 YouTube video that has been removed.
The video in the X post was originally posted on Facebook in 2020 with the caption, “self-defense situation”, and it is not related to the Kirk assassination.
Video of a gunman ‘escaping’ is from July in Nevada
On Thursday, an X user shared a video saying it showed “Charlie Kirk’s real shooter escaping after the shooting”. The post gained 9.5 million views.
But a reverse image search showed the video was taken from a different incident that happened in July, and in another state.
KRNV News 4 posted the video on July 29 on Facebook, saying police confirmed it showed a suspected gunman escaping after shooting multiple people at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. Three people died and three were injured.
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