Was Sam Hyde (or someone named Seth Sergio) the shooter at the July 4, 2022 shooting during a parade in Highland Park, Illinois? No, that's not true. Pictures of comedian Sam Hyde being shared on social media do not depict the shooter. Internet trolls use the same picture after every mass-casualty incident to blame the comedian in a twisted internet in-joke.
The latest example of the "joke" appeared in a tweet (archived here) posted by "Mario Sethington" on July 4, 2022.
THE HIGHLAND PARK ILLINOIS SHOOTER HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS 23 YEAR OLD SETH SERGIO pic.twitter.com/zGq6V35ouQ
-- Mario Sethington (@myflamebotnet) July 4, 2022
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Jul 4 17:54:36 2022 UTC)
At the time of writing according to Associated Press authorities say the identity of the shooting suspect is not known yet:
Highland Park Police said in a statement early Monday afternoon that five people had been killed and 19 people were taken to hospitals. It was unclear if the five dead were among the 19 hospitalized.
The police said authorities are still searching for the suspect.
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.
Lead Stories debunks of other Sam Hyde memes are collected here.
