Was the shooter responsible for the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump identified as "California resident Hank Pecker"? No, that's not true: The FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The man pictured in a claim on social media is Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. A search through an online news archive did not yield any evidence that could corroborate the claim, and plenty of news coverage and official statements that debunk it.
The claim appeared in a post on Threads (archived here) where it was posted on July 13, 2024. It read:
Trump Rally Shooter has been identified as 32 year old, California resident, Hank Pecker.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Mon Jul 15 14:12:59 2024 UTC)
The Threads post offers no other information that could back up this claim.
The FBI released a July 14, 2024, statement on the identity of the shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Trump. According to the statement, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania was identified as the shooter.
The original photo comes from Twitch streamer Hasan Piker's Instagram account. It was originally posted February 19, 2022 (archived here).
Lead Stories did a search using keywords on the Google News archive of thousands of reliable information sites, visible here, which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim (archived here).
Other Lead Stories articles on the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Trump are here, here and here.
