Did a police officer named Thomas Brown try to shoot a dog named "Pepe" while drunk and did he shoot himself in the leg instead? No, that's not true: the story was put out by a satirical website but it used a screenshot from a real news report about a real incident where an LA County police officer was accidentally shot so some people believed it to be real.
The story originated from an article published on April 22, 2019 by 8Satire and was titled "Cop Attempts To Shoot Dog For Barking But Accidentally Shot Himself Instead" (archived here) which opened:
In a totally shocking incident, a police officer has shot himself on the right leg, after missing his main target, a dog. According to local officials, the dog (named "Pepe") was barking too loud in the middle of the night, and the police officer Thomas Brown woke up a little dizzy, grabbed his gun and attempted to murder him.
His wife woke up after hearing the shot, and found the dog trying to help Brown get up.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Cop Attempts To Shoot Dog For Barking But Accidentally Shot Himself Instead
In a totally shocking incident, a police officer has shot himself on the right leg, after missing his main target, a dog. According to local officials, the dog (named "Pepe") was barking too loud in the middle of the night, and the police officer Thomas Brown woke up a little dizzy, grabbed his gun and [...]
The picture used with the story came from a 2018 incident where an LA County deputy was injured after an accidental shooting at a Compton police station:
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy injured in apparent accidental shooting
LYNWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was injured Tuesday after an apparent accidental shooting, authorities said. The deputy is in stable condition and is undergoing treatment at a hospital. The incident occurred around 1 p.m. at the Compton station, according to a tweet from the sheriff's department.
As far as we could tell no dog named "Pepe" was involved at that tiem and that shooting did not take place at home.
The website 8Satire carries a clear satire disclaimer at the bottom of each page:
8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those posts under the "serious" category) and shouldn't be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this website are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.
In addition to that there is also the name of the site and the subheading "Stating the obvious" to warn site visitors that what they are reading is fiction. This firmly puts the site in the "Satire" category as far as we are concerned, as explained in our Satire Policy.
We wrote about 8satire.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Wake Up After 10 Years In Coma To Fall Back In After Seeing Hospital Bill
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Travel 125 Km To Stab Man Who Posted Porn Reference Without Sharing Link
- Fake News: Cop Did NOT Accidentally Kill Black Man While Shooting At Flying Cockroach
- Fake News: DC Comics Fans Did NOT Create Petition To Make Aquaman Gay
- Fake News: Young Man Did NOT Stab His Best Friend After He Subscribed To T-Series
