Why Sam Hyde falsely linked to Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow - Shooter at Wisconsin school?
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| Sam Hyde is a sketch comedian |
A Dec. 16 Threads post (direct link, archive link) features side-by-side images of a girl taking a mirror selfie and a young man in a suit jacket and tie.
"BREAKING NEWS: The Wisconsin school shooter has been identified as Samuel Hyde, reportedly a trans student," the post reads. "Authorities urge the public to pray for the victims as investigations continue."
| The Wisconsin school shooter was identified as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, not "Samuel Hyde." Sam Hyde is a comedian who has been repeatedly and falsely linked to high-profile shootings for years. |
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| Teenage Shooter Natalie "Samantha" Rupnow is also pitiful |
Two people were killed and six others were injured in the Dec. 16 shooting. The suspected shooter was identified as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, a student at the school who went by Samantha, according to a Madison Police Department press release. She died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the release said.
Social media users have repeatedly and falsely linked comedian Sam Hyde to high-profile shootings by spreading variations of his name in the aftermath of such attacks, as is the case here.
| The comedian was wrongly associated with the shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and an attack on a Moscow concert hall. Hyde's name was also shared in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017, and his picture was falsely linked to a mass shooting in Las Vegas the same year. |
Who is Sam Hyde
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Sam Hyde is a sketch comedian and the star of Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace, a former hit show on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim comedy line-up. Although Hyde swears 4chan users are responsible for implicating him in every major shooting since 2015, he is closely aligned with the alt-right and has played along with the hoax in recent years by retweeting and reposting doctored photos of himself holding a gun outside mass casualty events. Regardless of where the hoax originated, however, Sam Hyde’s name and image have become an avatar for alt-right supporters seeking to disrupt media and law enforcement efforts during active shooter situations.
