Did a 33-year old man from Myrtle Beach in South Carolina fire a gun into hurricane Florence and did he die from the ricochet? No, that's not true: an old hoax from last year's hurricane Irma has been recycled (likely by the same author who was behind the previous hoax) but with a change in location and hurricane name. It still is not real.
The story originated from an article published on CGC News on September 14, 2018 titled "Myrtle Beach man who shot at Hurricane Florence dies after bullet ricochets" (archived here) which opened:
A 33-year old man from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has been confirmed as one of the first fatalities of Hurricane Florence after he ignored warnings and fired a weapon into the storm.
According to a source who responded to the scene the 33-year old is believed to have fired a large calibre weapon earlier this afternoon; however, the bullet ricocheted and ended up entering the man's head. It's believed he died instantly.
The incident comes after a Facebook event called "Shooting guns at Hurricane Florence to scare it away" went viral with over 22,000 South Carolina natives marking their interest in attending on Facebook. While the majority of them appear to have heeded the warnings not to actually shoot at the hurricane, the 33-year old Florence man who remains to be formally named was not among them.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Myrtle Beach man who shot at Hurricane Florence dies after bullet ricochets
A 33-year old man from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has been confirmed as one of the first fatalities of Hurricane Florence after he ignored warnings and fired a weapon into the storm. According to a source who responded to the scene the 33-year old is believed to have fired a large calibre weapon earlier this ...
That is mostly a copy of this hoax we debunked last year:
Fake News: Florida Man Did NOT Die After Bullet Ricochets When Shooting At Hurricane Irma | Lead Stories
Known fake news website Free Inquirer published an article titled "Florida man who shot at Hurricane Irma dies after bullet ricochets". It opened: A 47-year old man from Polk County, Florida, has been confirmed as one of the first fatalities of Hurricane Irma after he ignored warnings and fired a weapon into the storm.
The website CGC News is only a few days old according to WHOIS registration info:
Domain Information
Domain:
cgcnews.com
Registrar:
NameCheap Inc.
Registration Date:
2018-09-09
Expiration Date:
2019-09-09
Updated Date:
2018-09-09
Status:
clientTransferProhibited
Name Servers:
carl.ns.cloudflare.com
megan.ns.cloudflare.com
But the site has already published several stories that look quite similar to other articles found on an older network of fake news websites (including the cremated napping funeral home employee and the prostitute who turned out to be the client's wife) so we are reasonably certain this site is a new addition to the network.
Don't fall for it!
