Fact-Check: Italian Journalist Misidentified as Trump Shooter 'Mark Violets'

The deceased shooter was identified as a 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Fact-Check: An Italian journalist has been misidentified as the shooter who shot at former US President Donald Trump.

(Photo: The Quint)

A claim going viral on the internet states that the shooter who shot at former US President Donald J Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was identified as one "Antifa member" named Mark Violets. The claim accompanied by a photograph of the supposed shooter.

The information has been attributed to the Pennsylvania police department.

An archive of the viral post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

More such posts can be found here and here.

Is it true: No, the photograph and the claim is false.

• The photograph belongs to an Italian journalist called Marco Violi.

• The shooter, who was killed by the US Secret Service agents, was identified by the United State Federal Buruea of Investigation as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

How did we find that out:

• Upon conducting a reverse image search of the viral image on Google, we found videos of the same person on YouTube. One such video was uploaded on a channel called Roma Giallorossa TV, an Italian digital news platform.

• While going through the comments under the video, we found the name of the journalist, Marco Violi.

• We look for Violi's Instagram and found more photographs and his other work.

Violi's post on Instagram.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

• He also put up a story in Italian that said that he woke up in Rome, Italy to the news about Trump being shot and his alleged role.

• Denying his role in the shooting, he added that he had been targetted by a "group of haters" since 2018 and asked to be left alone.

What about the shooter in Pennsylvania:

• Initial reports suggested that counter snipers of the US Secret Service shot and killed the shooter after he opened fire at the Trump rally, killing one and injuring others, including Trump.

• The deceased shooter was later identified as a Bethel Park, Pennsylvania resident called Thomas Matthew Crooks.

• According to reports in the CNN, Crooks was a registered Republican and the FBI was yet to find the motive behind the attack.

• Note that several internet trolls have shared videos and photos of other lookalikes to claim that it shows the deceased shooter.

Conclusion: An Italian journalist was misidentified as the shooter who was involved in the attempted assassination of former US President Trump.

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