Did a widely-shared image of a bearded man show the individual arrested in Liverpool after a car drove into a crowd of celebrating soccer fans in May 2025? No, that's not true: Merseyside Police confirmed to Lead Stories that the photo doesn't show the man arrested in that case. That person was described as a "53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area".
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on May 26, 2025. It read:
This appears to be the driver of the car that ploughed into the Liverpool fans ..
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
On May 26, 2025, a car drove into a crowd in Liverpool, U.K. (archived here), injuring dozens. The arrested person was identified as a "53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area" (archived here).
On the same day, internet users shared a clip of a man sitting in a police car and wearing a police hat, to the amusement of the crowd around him:
@clip.tok737 #fyp #scouse #liverpool #lfc #parade #police #champions ♬ original sound - clip.tok
Others then connected that relatively light-hearted footage with the car ramming incident, falsely claiming that the man shown in that video was the same one later arrested by police.
A spokesperson for Merseyside Police was unequivocal in their clarification, telling Lead Stories via email on May 27, 2025:
We can confirm the picture is not of the 53 year old White British man who was arrested.
According to the statement (archived here) issued one day earlier, law enforcement was not investigating the case as terrorism. The police additionally asked the public to "refrain from sharing distressing footage from the incident online".
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning the U.K. are here.
