Was the shooting in El Paso today perpetrated by someone named "Sam Hyde"? No, that's not true: trolls on Twitter quickly started claiming to have heard via police scanners that he was the shooter but it is an internet tradition in some circles to blame the comedian every time a mass casualty incident happens.
An example of a tweet making the accusation can be seen here (archived here):
From local scanner police have identified the shooter as a Sam Hyde. Post from 4chan identified him also with this picture. pic.twitter.com/3MQwMkVb9O
-- Honk Honk (@_Not_a_Russian) August 3, 2019
For actual coverage of the shooting, check here:
Multiple victims reported after shooting near El Paso Walmart, police warn of multiple 'shooters'
More than a dozen people are believed to have been shot near a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday morning, as police warned of reports of multiple "shooters." Police responded to reports of an active shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall area shortly before 11 a.m.
Blaming right-wing comedian Sam Hyde of being the suspect after a mass shooting is a strange in-joke that has been going on for years.
Whenever there's a mass shooting, trolls blame comedian Sam Hyde
Sam Hyde is not the perpetrator of a mass shooting. But whenever a shooter strikes and the news reports casualties, trolls race to name Hyde as the culprit. In the worst cases, authorities have been tricked into giving Hyde's name to the press.
Here is more information about Sam Hyde and the infamous "Sam Hyde Is The Shooter" meme originally propagated by 4chan trolls:
Sam Hyde
Sam Hyde is an Internet comedian who co-founded the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme and rose to viral video fame after staging a satirical TEDx talk about wonders of the future at Drexel University in October 2013.
