Misinformation Abounds In Wake Of Texas Mass Shooting

AUSTIN, TX — Acts of gun violence like the massacre in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday have, lamentably, become all too common. But as reliable as those grim occurrences now are, so too are campaigns of misinformation created either by those wantonly intent on optimizing sensationalism or pushing a political agenda.

In the heat of the moment in the immediate aftermaths of such acts of violence, elected officials are sometimes guilty of spreading misinformation at requisite, post-shooting media interviews. In the hours following the deadliest mass shooting in Texas — a rampage by a lone gunman that took the lives of 26 victims at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs — state Rep. Vicente González erroneously told reporters the name of the shooter was Sam Hyde.

"It was reported to me that he's actually not from this community," González told CNN on Sunday afternoon, just hours after the late-morning shooting. "Apparently his name was released as Sam Hyde, that was the name I was given."

That's incorrect. The name Sam Hyde has been trotted out time and time again after mass shootings, the origins of the moniker unclear. Devin Patrick Kelley — who lived in Comal County just outside New Braunfels, Texas, near San Antonio — has since been identified as the shooter. Investigators are trying to determine if he died as a result of a self-inflicted wound after his rampage or succumbed to shots fired from a passerby who engaged him after the church shooting.

Sam Hyde is a name often used by users of 4chan, often flooding Twitter naming the ghostly suspect as the shooter after such incidents. Given the pervasive use of the name immediately following mass shootings, BuzzFeed once devoted a long treatise detailing its origins.

In what seemed like mere moments after the shooting, someone created a fake Facebook page purporting to be that of the killer. The fake page implied a far-left leaning, suggesting Kelley was a member of an anti-fascist, anti-Trump group known commonly as Antifa. A high-powered Ruger AR rifle was displayed among photos of the fake page, suggesting Kelley's ownership of same.

The page was quickly deemed fake, but not before it was widely shared. It's since been deleted. The shuttering hasn't stopped those in the far-right from perpetuating the myth, chiefly Alex Jones of Austin-based InfoWars — another reliable source of misinformation eagerly insinuating himself into news related to tragedy to advance his feverish, conspiratorial visions.

"Was this part of the Antifa revolution against Christians and conservatives or an Isis op?" Jones posited at 1:58 p.m. on Sunday, barely two hours after the massacre. "Live from the church....Infowars.com," he added in shameless plug for his nationally broadcast radio show of which followers are legion.

Yet police have yet to release any information related to the shooter's affiliations to groups or what his motive may have been. But, again, this hasn't stopped conjecture from spreading. Despite such official confirmation, there are some convinced the assassin absolutely had to be a Democrat: "Mark my words, this shooter in Texas is a democrat [sic] type, antifa type, white guilt ridden BLM sympathizer," wrote one would-be pundit calling himself Patriot Writer. "Guaranteed!" he added for further emphasis.

But Patriot Writer provides no evidence for his hunch, his tweets serving only to energize his base of followers and heighten the din of ensuing debate as to the shooter's motives.

Another self-assigned pundit with the handle of Truth Tweeter was equally confident to reach a similar conclusion, again sans evidence: "Texas Sutherland Springs Shooter Devin Patrick Kelley Another Democrat Backed Antifa Terrorist," he offered via Twitter, with a missive seemingly meant to mimic a newspaper headline given the use of capitalization.

Yet another Twitter-happy messenger goes further, asserting the shooter was an atheist on the Democrate National Committee (DNC) payroll. Needless to say, there is no evidence to support this theory.

Other misinformation merchants prefer to advance the notion the shooter was Muslim — a much-maligned religion of which attacks have become fashionable given talks at the highest levels of government to ban its members from entering the country as visitors or would-be citizens.

In that vein, another fictitious name has been advanced: Samir Al-Hajeed. But like Sam Hyde, that identity has been rolled out before, most recently after the Las Vegas shooting that claimed 58 lives at the hands of another lone gunman. Like Sam Hyde, the elusive Samir Al-Hajeed is also a hoax.

To the reasonable mind, the abundance of misinformation is easily dismissed as so much hogwash born of the addled mind or the tactics of the idle. But sometimes, the tweets have real-life consequences rooted in mis-identification. BNL News (one of those fringe "news" sites purporting to offer legitimate journalism) was forced to retract its report naming the shooter as Chris Ward.

"IMPORTANT: We deleted 2 posts that said Chris Ward was the Texas gunman," the "news" site helpfully offered after the fact. "His nephew seems to confirm he's is [sic] a victim, and NOT the shooter."

Oops. Surely, they regret the error.

One poor fellow using the handle Reviewbrah — the guy behind the popular YouTube channel "TheReportOfTheWeek" — has emerged as unwitting poster boy in alerting to the perils of misinformation. At least thrice, he's had to assure loved ones and followers that he hasn't gone missing after recent shootings — the Las Vegas shooting, the one at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, and most recently the Sutherland Springs rampage — as keyboard jockeys have professed.

This time, Reviewbrah created a separate video from his usual offerings designed to alert the world that he was safe. Against the cacophonous backdrop of his reputed death following the Manchester shooting, Reviewbrah took to the same Internet advancing his disappearance to confirm his safety, the title his post-shooting video succinct: "I am alive."

Photo credit: Eric Gay/Associated Press