Is Sam Hyde the perpetrator of a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis? No, that's not true:A viral post recycled the meme in circulation since 2015 that casts the comedian Sam Hyde as an attacker after mass shootings in the U.S. or abroad. No credible media organization reported that anyone named "Sam Hyde" was connected to the events in Minneapolis.
The troll posts appeared in the wake of a school shooting that happened on August 27, 2025.
An example of the claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) published on August 27, 2025 that read:
The mass shooter in Minnesota was identified as Sam Hyde. Sam was frustrated that his former Catholic school was teaching LGBTQ propaganda. It's also reported that Sam is involved in an active firefight with Governor Tim Waltz.
#masshooting
#ar15
#Minnesota
#Governor
#news
"Sam Hyde is the killer" joke
As part of a bizarre internet in-joke, comedian Sam Hyde gets blamed for almost every mass shooting or headline-grabbing assasination that happens, often within minutes of the event. The joke originally started on 4chan and has been perpetuated for years by various troll accounts.
Often the false claims use a picture of Hyde posing with a weapon, such as this one:
You can read our previous fact checks mentioning his name here.
