Outdated looting video not filmed in Philadelphia
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 27, 2023 at 21:43
- 2 min read
- By Nahiara S. ALONSO, AFP USA
- Translation and adaptation Natalie WADE
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"Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Target is literally turned into a zoo. One guy is having so much fun he’s riding a bicycle. Keep voting democrat and you’ll have nothing," says an April 20, 2023 tweet with more than 37,000 likes.
The video also circulated on TikTok, where one version received more than 5.4 million views, and on Twitter alongside claims that the disturbance took place in Chicago. Other posts in Spanish included similar allegations.
The claims come after a wave of violence in Philadelphia following several shootings that have left at least five people injured. There has also been unrest in Chicago after crowds of teenagers turned violent in mid-April, leading to several arrests and injuries.
However, the video shared online does not depict either US city.
A reverse image search surfaced the footage in a May 2020 tweet (archived here) from Max Nesterak, a Minnesota-based reporter.
"(The video was recorded) on May 27 at a Target in Lake Street in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd," Nesterak told AFP, confirming he recorded the incident.
Fox6 News Milwaukee also credited the video to Nesterak in a May 27, 2020 Facebook post.
The death of Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, sparked outrage and demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality across the United States in summer 2020.
AFP has fact-checked other out-of-context videos of civil unrest here and here.
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