Fake News: Black Men DID Commit Some Of This Year's 154 Mass Shootings

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Black Men DID Commit Some Of This Year's 154 Mass Shootings

Were none of the 154 mass shootings in the United States this year commited by black men or illegal aliens? No, that's not true: the claim made in a viral Facebook post published by David Brown this summer which has been shared over half a million times can easily be disproven.

The claim appeared in a Facebook post published on July 1, 2018 by a Facebook user named "David Brown" (archived here) with following text:

154 mass shootings this year and not one committed by a black man or illegal alien. Let that sink in.

However a quick look at this list of 2018 mass shootings and a few Google searches are enough to disprove the claim:

1 dead, 3 injured in Brinkley shooting

The Monroe County sheriff says a suspect in a shooting that left one person dead and three others injured turned himself in Thursday morning.Arkansas State Police, which has been called in to investigate, says James Frost, 43, of Brinkley was taken into cu

Police ID man connected to shooting outside Allerton lounge

An Allerton lounge owner says the events leading up to a shooting and stabbing did not start inside of his business.

Who was Snochia Moseley? Maryland shooter who killed her colleagues

KILLER Moseley shot three people dead before turning the gun on herself in what police described as a 'senseless' crime.

It appears the claim was later repeated by the Facebook page Occupy Democrats (adding "women" to the list of non-perpetrators) leading Snopes to fact check it and finding it a "mixture" because depending on the definition of "mass shooting" it was still possible to claim no black men, women or illegal aliens committed any of the six shootings that would remain on the list if that definition was used:

FACT CHECK: Were None of 154 Mass Shootings in 2018 Committed by a Black Man, Illegal Alien, or Woman?

A hyperpartisan Facebook page gave readers an incomplete picture of mass shootings in America in 2018.

Note that we were unable to find examples of illegal immigrants committing mass shootings in 2018 but we didn't search very hard since the basic claim ("black man or illegal alien") was already logically proven false when we found our first counterexample.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion