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On 5 November 2017, a shooter opened fire on congregants at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church, killing 26 people and wounding scores more. The shooting remains under investigation, with few solid facts about the incident confirmed by law enforcement. In the absence of verified updates, common conspiracy tropes, claims, conjecture, and rumors filled the information void on social media. Here are some that we have encountered: Was the shooter linked to an antifa civil war? The shooting in Sutherland Springs was predated by two extremely popular falsehoods — antifa, a shorthand term for anti-fascist groups, planned a 4 November 2017 civil war or coup, and that a coincidental Department of Defense drill provided cover for a false flag attack during the purported government overthrow. We rated both claims independently false; antifa neither overthrew the government nor attempted to as of 7 November 2017. Further, no electromagnetic pulse-related blackout occurred during that time. Naturally, the same sites claiming there would be a 4 November 2017 government coup spread stories in the immediate aftermath linking the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church shooting to an antifa civil war. That claim is false. Was the shooter's name Chris Ward? Immediately after the shooting and prior to law enforcement verification, rumors circulated claiming that the shooter's name was Chris Ward. However, it was established fairly rapidly that Ward was a victim, not the perpetrator: Was the shooter a Muslim convert named Samir Al-Hajeed or a man named Sam Hyde? Neither. On 5 November 2017, the completely unreliable site Freedom Daily published an article (BREAKING: America’s Worst Nightmare About Texas Church Shooter Just Confirmed – Here’s Who He Is with a web address that ended: breaking-the-texas-church-shooter-is-a-muslim-this-is-terrorism): That rumor is clearly false, as Samir Al-Hajeed was also blamed for the Las Vegas shooting (with an identical photograph). The hoax was recycled in the hours after the tragedy in Sutherland Springs. Although the claim was debunked almost instantly, Freedom Daily's uncorrected page remained live and in circulation as of 6 November 2017. The Samir Al-Hajeed/Sam Hyde hoax appears as a joke after almost every mass shooting. Read more about it here. Did an armed civilian help put an end to the shooting in Sutherland Springs? Another popular claim is that an armed civilian intervened in the immediate aftermath, helping to bring an end to the massacre: This is mostly true. Two civilians, Stephen Willeford and Johnnie Langedorff, confronted and chased the shooter: The two chased Kelley, exchanging gunfire with him and staying on the phone with law enforcement until he wrecked out and then died of what is thought to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Was the shooter an atheist on the Democratic National Committee's payroll? False. A fake news site's claim the shooter was DNC operative and atheist was marked with a clear satire disclaimer. We will update this page as more hoaxes and rumors appear.
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