&Quot;Sam Hyde&Quot;

Was the Apalachee High School shooter identified as a trans girl named Samantha Hyde? No, that's not true: An internet hoax that misidentifies the suspect in mass shootings as "Sam" or "Samantha Hyde" has been going around since 2015. The 14-year-old suspect in the Georgia school shooting was identified by authorities as 14-year-old Colt Gray. The meme reappeared on X…

Was comedian Sam Hyde identified as the man who shot at Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024? No, that's not true: The comedian is routinely blamed for being the perpetrator of shootings or other violent incidents as part of a bizarre internet in-joke. The FBI has identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park in…

Are Sám Shevchenko, Samel Hydruskli or Samuel Hydenko the names of any of the suspects in the deadly March 22, 2024, concert hall attack in Moscow, Russia? No, that's not true: In the wake of mass shootings, naming "Sam Hyde" and variations of that name as a shooter is an often-recycled internet meme. It plays on the name of Sam…

Was one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as 44-year-old Sahil Omar, an "illegal immigrant"? No, that's not true: As of this writing, law enforcement had not released the identities of three people detained in connection to the incident, nor had anyone been charged. News photos of a man detained after the shooting did not identify the man…

Was "44-year-old Sahil Omar" confirmed as a suspect in the explosion at the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Downtown Hotel in Texas? No, that's not true: The Fort Worth police department had not named any suspects at the time of writing. "Sahil Omar" has been labeled a suspect in multiple tragedies in states far from one another on the social media…

Is the young man pictured in this collection of screenshots the Nashville school shooter, shown before a purported gender transition? No, that's not true: The young man in one of the photos is from Pennsylvania and was not involved in the shooting at The Covenant School in Tennessee. His social media accounts happened to share one feature with the Nashville…

Did Tennessee TV news station WSMV 4 Nashville tweet that a father vowed an "end to tolerance" of "trans evil" in response to the March 27, 2023, Covenant School mass shooting that killed six people? No, that's not true: The broadcast station publicly stated that the tweet was fabricated. Lead Stories found no evidence to corroborate that the claim was…

Was "Samantha Hyde" positively identified as the suspected shooter in the Nashville Covenant School shooting? No, that's not true: According to local police, it was Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Posts on social media were based on a long-running internet prank that a comedian named Sam Hyde, or some derivation of his name, is named as the suspected gunman by internet trolls…

Did a "local man" singlehandedly shoot down "in an EXTRAORDINARY act of vigilantism" the "Chinese spy balloon" recently flying over the continental United States? No, that's not true: The meme that makes this vigilante claim shows a comedian, Sam Hyde, who is routinely cast as the perpetrator in headline-grabbing news events in what one website has called an "extremely tired"…

Was a Ukraine ID card in the name of "Semen Hydenko" (or Samuyil Hydenko) found at the scene of the October 8, 2022, explosion on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia? No, that's not true: The spoof ID card shown in online messages has the face of American comedian Sam Hyde on it. In a bizarre internet in-joke, Hyde is…