Fact-Check: Sam Hyde Meme Revived Following Trump Assassination Attempt

Sam Hyde is an American comedian and podcaster and has often been linked to cases of shootings.

Fact-Check: This claim is false. This is a long-standing meme, linking him to different shootings. 

(Source: The Quint) 

Following the assassination attempt of the former president of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump, at an election rally in Pennsylvania, social media users went on a spree sharing images or information about the shooter.

In one such case, an image showing a man standing with a gun in his hand is being shared with the claim that he is Trump's shooter. The man has been identified as one "Samson Hidy."

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 1.7 million views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: The man in the image is Sam Hyde, who is a comedian and podcaster. His name has often been as the shooter in many cases of shootings.

• The Quint has previously fact-checked posts featuring Hyde as the shooter of an event.

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified as a 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Pennsylvania.

What we know: Firstly, The Quint had previously fact-checked posts regarding Hyde when he was linked to other shootings.

• In 2022, we did two stories. One is about Hyde being the shooter of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Secondly, Hyde was also misidentified as the shooter Ukrainian ace fighter pilot, dubbed as 'Ghost of Kyiv.'

• Upon doing a Google reverse image search, we came across a post on X from December 2020 by a user named, 'Conspirador Norteño.'

• They noted, "The name "Sam Hyde", accompanied by these photos of a blond man, gets circulated as a suspect by 4chan users after pretty much every major act of public violence." (Sic.)

• Similarly, in 2022, Hyde was identified as the suspect for the shooting at a school in Uvalde in Texas.

So, what is the Sam Hyde hoax? According to a Forbes article from 2016, many memes about mass shootings exist on 4chan, the image-sharing website best known for disseminating hacked celebrity nudes, goofy pranks, and being the origin of Anonymous.

• Among them is this bizarre meme that claims Hyde is the shooter. Hyde's name was invoked in Heston, Minneapolis, San Bernardino, and Kalamazoo shooting incidents. Pranksters also tricked CNN into believing he was the gunman in Oregon.

• Hyde also addressed and spoke about these 'shooter memes' in a 2019 video.

FBI's action: The agency has already named Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania as the shooter who tried to kill Trump.

• Crooks was killed on the stop, which also led to one audience member's death and two severely injured.

Conclusion: Hyde's name has again popped up as the shooter in the case of the assassination of Trump.

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