A false theory that the perpetrator of the Texas elementary school shooting was in fact a young trans woman has been raging on social media since Tuesday.
It all started on 4chan, a forum where hate speech and conspiracy theories abound, where a user boasted of having identified the author of the massacre in a primary school in Uvalde, which killed 21 people, including 19 children. He attached a photo and a link to the killer’s alleged Reddit profile. Except that this link did not lead to the profile of Salvator Ramos, the real perpetrator of the killing, but rather to that of a young 20-year-old trans woman named Sam.
If the two individuals have a certain physical resemblance, absolutely nothing connects them, and the falsely accused young woman quickly retaliated on her Reddit account. Posing in front of a trans flag, she penned the message, “That’s not me, I don’t even live in Texas.” Joined by the American network NBC, the young woman said that “this is not the first time that I have been harassed, but it is the first time that I have been accused of murder”.
Sat, 20, started posting photos to build confidence after she transitioned. Yesterday, those photos were used against her trolls falsely claimed she was the Uvalde Texas shooter. She spoke to NBC News in an article from me, @JoYurcaba and @oneunderscore__ https://t.co/sD8VOwqgcH
—Benjamin Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) May 25, 2022
The elected representative of the Arizona House of Representatives of the United States, the ultraconservative Paul Gosar, published a tweet on Tuesday evening feeding the theory. He wrote that the killer is an “illegal leftist and alien transsexual named Salvatore Ramos”. This post has since been deleted.
This has GOT to stop.
A sitting congressman just spread a lie about the Texas shooter to pin it on transgender people spread by troll sites, in a state where they are spending more time banning trans kids than they are spending regulating guns.
This is absolutely SICK. pic.twitter.com/4EI1Och4ID
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) May 25, 2022
Questioned by Internet users on Reddit, the young woman had to deny the rumors accusing her. “Do you have the same name as the person who did this [la tuerie] ? I’m confused because a lot of people are using your photos, ”one user wrote to him. “No, it’s just transphobes who took the opportunity to attack me and other trans people,” Sam replied.
“Transphobic people exist and people are quick to blame someone for terrible things instead of looking for the truth about what really happened,” denounced the young woman in an interview with NBC.
The Trans Safety Network, a network for the protection of the rights of trans people, issued a press release to denounce the rumors concerning the person responsible for the killing of Uvalde. The organization reports that photos of three trans people identified as the killer have circulated on the Internet in the last few days.
“The three individuals have since confirmed online that they are alive,” reads the statement, while the real perpetrator of the massacre was shot dead by the police the same day.
Last night viral rumors spread on Twitter and Infowars that the Texas Elementary shooter was an unrelated trans woman. Trans Safety Network volunteers contacted her and encouraged her to lock her account to reduce risk of doxing and SWATing attacks affecting her or her family.
— Trans Safety Network (@trans_safety) May 25, 2022