On the evening of November 7th, at least 12 people were killed in California when a shooter walked into the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks and began firing, in what is the latest in a long string of mass shootings to happen across the United States.
Inevitably, much misinformation spread in the wake of the shooting. We list that here.
We’ll be brief, since we cover this one during every shooting. Sam Hyde isn’t a shooter, he’s an online comedian that as part of an on-going meme is always falsely attributed as being the shooter during any mass shooting or terrorist attack. Police have confirmed the shooter is a 28 year old male named David Ian Long.
Sam Hyde has previously been falsely attributed to past shootings including the Marjory Douglas Stoneman school shooting, the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay shooting and the Madden Video Game shooting.
Tweets from popular Twitter accounts often associated with misinformation have been spreading online that claim the Thousand Oaks Borderline Bar & Brill shooter was a “middle Eastern man with a beard.” However authorities have confirmed that the shooter was a 28 year old white male.
It is possible that early eyewitness accounts that turned out to be inaccurate were responsible for this particular piece of misinformation circulating.
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Rumors like the one below began circulating only hours after the shooting –
The Mass Shooter @ the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousands Oaks California has been identified as 28 year-old Abu Al-Hom Kreuzi of Los Angeles California. 13 people dead including shooter & Ventura Couty Shreiff’s Sgt. Ron Helus.
Again this is demonstrably false since the shooter was since identified by police as Ian David Long.
This article will be updated when new misinformation comes to light.
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