Fact check: Fake suspects in Trump's assassination attempt

Some of the false narratives surrounding the assassination attempt on the Republican Party's presidential candidate, Donald Trump, are related to the suspected shooter's identity.

Security agencies identified the attacker within hours of the failed attempt. The FBI has named the suspect as Thomas Matthew C., whose full name is not given here in accordance with the German press protections for suspects' personal rights.

The suspect was killed immediately after he fired at Trump's rally. Authorities told reporters that the suspect was not carrying identification and that they used DNA and other methods to confirm his identity.

Despite this, numerous social media posts continued to spread misinformation and confusion regarding the shooter's identity.

Claim: "Mark Violets" is the attacker.

DW Fact-Check: False

Soon after the attack, false claims started circulating on different social media platforms, asserting that the attacker was an Antifa activist named "Mark Violets". Many accounts shared screenshots of social media posts with this claim, as seen in our image. These posts included a picture of a man in sunglasses.

The picture accompanying the post was actually of an Italian named Marco Violi, who has no connection to the shooting in Pennsylvania. According to his Instagram bio, he is a journalist and mostly reports on football.

In an Instagram post, Violi stated in Italian that he was in Rome at the time of the incident and was alerted to the false news by a flood of messages on his phone. "I'm in Rome and I had no idea what happened except watching Sky TG24 in Italy, which I still follow," Violi wrote. He mentioned he would file a complaint "against the X accounts that spread this fake news and all the news headlines that propagated it."

Violi has been posting several videos on his YouTube channel that show the same background of a room as in the widespread image.

Claim: The attacker released a video after the attack claiming police got the wrong person.

DW Fact-Check: False 

A video and an image started circulating on social media X, showing a man with long blond hair in a blue shirt claiming to be the attacker and that authorities did not shoot the actual attacker. "My name is Thomas Matthew C. . I hate Republicans, I hate Trump. Guess what? You got the wrong guy!" the post said.

This was, in fact, a parody video produced by an X user. Later, in another X post, the user said it was a joke. The user protected their tweets after the video and the photo went viral. The profile is currently not publicly available.

However, many people kept sharing the video and the image, claiming it came from the real attacker.

Even mainstream media fell for this trolling attempt, like two Indian networks, a Ukrainian and a Romanian news website.

Claim: The suspect is not Thomas Matthew C. but Maxwell Y.

DW Fact-Check: False

It remains unclear how the name Maxwell Y. surfaced shortly after the assassination attempt, but it spread rapidly. Several users posted a picture of a man with long brown hair, claiming he was the suspect and had been killed by security forces soon after the shooting.

Our research indicates that the picture circulating was indeed of a man named Maxwell Y., but that he was unrelated to Saturday's incident in Butler, Pennsylvania. This, we found out by searching for the name and using reverse image search. Media reports from 2016 revealed Maxwell Y. was involved in a clash between Trump supporters and protesters in Pittsburgh in 2016. Back then, Maxwell Y. was arrested, and his picture was published in several news reports.

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump has unleashed a wave of misinformation on social media. DW's fact-checking team recommends you use caution and think critically before sharing any news or rumors during such sensitive times. Do you want to know more about how to recognize and verify fake content? Check out our articles and videos on this content.

Edited by: Uta Steinwehr, Sean Sinico