Posts share erroneous information about suspect identification in Kansas City mass shooting
Police clear the area following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. Social media users are sharing false information about suspect identification related to the shooting. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
CLAIM: A 44-year-old migrant named Sahil Omar was identified as one of the shooters at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade on Wednesday.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Three juveniles were detained and one was later released in the investigation into the shooting that broke out at the conclusion of parade festivities outside historic Union Station, police said. The name Sahil Omar along with the same description has been used before on social media to make similar erroneous claims in connection with a January explosion in Fort Worth, Texas, and a December shooting in Las Vegas.
THE FACTS: Following the shooting that left a mother of two dead and 22 injured at the end of the parade celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win, social media users began sharing information that falsely pinned the violence on a 44-year-old migrant living in the country illegally.
“At least one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as Sahil Omar, a 44 year old illegal immigrant,” reads one post on X that had received approximately 24,000 likes and 11,700 shares as of Thursday. “Biden has failed to protect America from invasion and terrorism.”
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a press conference on Thursday that three people had been detained as part of an investigation into the shooting, including two juveniles. The third person, who was later identified as a juvenile, was released. No further information was released pending further investigation.
“The ID of anyone arrested only becomes public record together with any criminal charges,” Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department, told The Associated Press in an email. “There have not been any criminal charges at this time.”
Graves added at the press conference that “preliminary investigative findings have shown there was no nexus to terrorism or home-grown violent extremism.”
Social media users also falsely blamed a massive explosion in January at the Sandman Signature Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as a shooting in December at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on a 44-year-old migrant named Sahil Omar.
No suspect was sought in relation to the Fort Worth explosion, police told the AP at the time. Authorities said the blast had “characteristics of a natural gas explosion,” but that the cause was still under investigation.
The actual suspect in the Las Vegas attack, who died in a shootout with law enforcement, was identified by police as Anthony Polito, a longtime business professor who had unsuccessfully applied for several jobs at various colleges and universities in Nevada.
Wednesday’s shooting in Kansas City left one person dead and 22 injured, the AP has reported. Victims ranged between the ages of 8 and 47 years old, and half of those injured were under the age of 16. Graves said at the Thursday press conference that the shooting appeared to stem from a dispute between several people, but that the investigation is still active.
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.