Was one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as 44-year-old Sahil Omar, an "illegal immigrant"? No, that's not true: As of this writing, law enforcement had not released the identities of three people detained in connection to the incident, nor had anyone been charged. News photos of a man detained after the shooting did not identify the man being detained. And the name "Sahil Omar" has appeared online as a supposed suspect in previous incidents without any connection to the actual events.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on February 15, 2024. It began:
If you're wondering why they quit talking about the Kansas City shooting.
Now you know .
At least one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as Sahil Omar, a 44 year old illegal immigrant.
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Feb 16 01:01:55 2024 UTC)
Other variations of the statement in question were critical of Joe Biden's alleged failure "to protect America from invasion and terrorism" or inserted the claim into an obituary of a real victim (archived here):
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Feb 15 22:31:45 2024 UTC)
The posts reused an authentic photo (archived here) taken in the aftermath of the Kansas City Chief's Super Bowl victory parade in Missouri on February 14, 2024. It could be easily found in stock image databases and in some news reports. However, the caption of the photo did not name the man in a red tracksuit surrounded by the police.
On the morning of February 15, 2024, news organizations including Reuters (archived here) reported that three people were detained in connection to the shooting. However, they were not named suspects and their identities remained unknown.
In the early afternoon of February 15, AP (archived here) reported that two of the three detainees were juveniles but their names were not released. Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves added that nobody had been charged at that time (archived here.)
Police did not discuss the immigration status of the detained.
A Google search (archived here) didn't show any news stories about the incident mentioning "Sahil Omar":
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Feb 15 16:59:11 2024 UTC)
"Sahil Omar" appears to be a new variation of the "Sam Hyde" phenomenon when internet trolls baselessly named comedian Sam Hyde in multiple shootings.
Prior to the shooting in Kansas City, posts on social media had connected "Sahil Omar" to the Fort Worth Downtown hotel explosion in Texas and alleged that the man of this name was close to Jeffrey Epstein. However, that was not true, as Lead Stories previously wrote.
Lead Stories reached out for additional comments to the Kansas City Police Department. When we get a response, this story will be updated as appropriate.
