An Italian YouTuber unexpectedly found themself thrust into a social media firestorm after mistakenly being identified by internet sleuths as the perpetrator behind the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday.
According to a statement by the local district attorney, the shooter responsible for firing multiple times at Trump appears to have been killed by authorities. Trump, for his part, is doing “fine” and is safe according to his team.
It was not immediately clear how many other casualties may have occurred in the shooting.
While authorities have not officially named the perpetrator, online sleuths instantly attempted to investigate who committed the attack.
And some pointed to a video they believe the shooter posted to YouTube just hours before the rally.
The only problem, however, is the person in the video is alive and posting that they were not involved.
Immediately after the shooting, a video began to circulate showing a bearded man mimicking a firearm being shot while making noises.
Several of the posts alleging to reveal the identity of the shooter claimed they were an antifa member who hinted at the shooting by posting online hours beforehand.
Others have shared older clips from his channel, also claiming those videos showed his plans to get rid of Trump earlier today.
Those claims have begun to be deleted, but the name is still trending online.
The user’s account, which the Daily Dot is not identifying, has since gone private.
However, prior to that, they posted about the accusations.
In response to a mega-viral claim from one account, they quoted it saying “Shshsgagzsgagagahzgahagsxg gagagahazhxgsgwga” appearing to be flabbergasted by the accusation
“Holy shit,” they added to another.
“Damn yours … these American idiots think it’s me.”
They posted a number of other tweets, trying to refute out the claims.
On the account’s YouTube channel, no videos have been posted in the past four days. Videos of the person appear to match the one people are falsely identifying shooter.
The Daily Dot is not identifying the YouTube channel or X handle.
In response to a message on X from the Daily Dot, they asked to be left alone. Later they noted that other outlets also reached out.
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