Posts misidentify Trump rally shooter

AAP FACTCHECK – Misinformation surrounding the assassination attempt of Donald Trump has spread widely on social media, with many claims relating to the shooter’s identity.

Before the FBI confirmed the person involved was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, false accusations and confusion began appearing online.

The former US president was wounded in his right ear while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania at the weekend, and one spectator was killed.

Numerous social media users denied the shooter was Crooks.

“It appears the actual ID of the shooter at the rally in PA is Maxwell Yearick,” one Facebook post states.

“Now, it’s being reported that Thomas Matthew Crooks is NOT the alleged shooter, and that it is a guy affiliated with ANTIFA that was actually arrested back in 2016 for being involved in an Anti-Trump protest in Pittsburgh … His name is Maxwell Yearick,” another user claims.

Some posts include a photo of Maxwell Yearick, a man with long brown hair and ear piercings, who was arrested in 2016 following an altercation with police while protesting Trump’s visit in Pittsburgh and sentenced to three to 12 months after pleading guilty to assault.

Yearick is not, however, connected to the assassination attempt and his photograph can be traced to news reports from the time of his arrest.

Other users shared pictures and a video of a person in a blue T-shirt with long blond hair, claiming these depict the shooter.

In the video the person says: “My name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. I hate Republicans. I hate Trump. And guess what? You got the wrong guy.”

The claim originated from X user @jewgazing, who made the posts in an apparent trolling attempt.

The photograph was shared with the caption: “breaking: the trump shooter has been identified.”

Despite the user later saying it was a joke and changing the account settings to private, many continued to share the images saying it was the real attacker.

In another case of mistaken identity, users claimed the Butler City Police Department confirmed the attacker was an anti-fascist (or antifa) activist named Mark Violets.

Many included a photograph of a man wearing dark clothes and sunglasses.

The picture is actually of an Italian named Marco Violi, who said he was woken in the middle of the night by social media notifications.

In an Instagram post, Mr Violi strongly denies being involved: “I will be filing a complaint against the X accounts that invented this fake news and all the news headlines that spread the fake news,” he writes in Italian.

“Being a journalist since 2006, I know very well that you need to verify all sources before you bump a supposed monster on the front page.”

The claim appears to have originated with Italian X users, then repeated by the account @WallStreetSilv, which has previously shared false claims.

Butler City Police Chief Bob O’Neill told fact-checking site Lead Stories the department made no confirmation about the shooter’s identity.

“This event did not occur in the City of Butler. It was in a Township surrounding our area,” he said, adding: “The Secret Service is issuing all press related material.”

Elsewhere on social media, it was being claimed the Trump rally shooter had been identified as 32-year-old California resident Hank Pecker.

The posts included an image of a man holding a rifle.

A reverse-image search shows the photo was uploaded to Instagram in February 2022 by Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.

Dote Sports reported that Hank Pecker is the name of a character portrayed by Mr Hasan while live-streaming video games.

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