Hoax posts falsely identify Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooter

"At least one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as Sahil Omar, a 44 year old illegal immigrant. Biden has failed to protect America from invasion and terrorism," says a February 15, 2024 post on X attacking US President Joe Biden over the US-Mexico border.

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Screenshot from X taken February 15, 2024

The rumor rocketed across X and other platforms, with the first posts popping up just hours after the mass shooting at the NFL champions' February 14 victory rally in Kansas City, Missouri, which left one dead and 22 injured, including children as young as 8.

Within a day, "Sahil Omar" was trending on X.

Some posts claimed "Omar" was a prior offender, while others sought to draw connections to Islam, the Palestinian militant group Hamas or Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota. 

The shots rang out moments after Chiefs players addressed the cheering crowd, sending shocked fans fleeing in a tragic end to the city's third such celebration in five years.

But authorities had not named suspects or filed charges when the posts blaming "Omar" took off -- and the accusations facing the supposed 44-year-old migrant appear to be part of a months-long internet hoax.

In a February 16 statement shared with AFP, the Jackson County Family Court Division announced that "two juveniles" were charged the day prior over the incident "on gun related and resisting arrest charges," adding that additional charges are expected as the police investigation proceeds.

The statement did not release the names of those detained because of their ages.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves previously said during a February 15 press conference that two "juveniles" were detained and the incident was not linked to terrorism, but instead "appeared to be a dispute among several people that ended in gunfire" (archived here and here).

AFP contacted the Kansas City Police Department for additional comment, but no response was forthcoming.

Many X posts mentioning "Sahil Omar" are sharing an AFP photo of a bald man in a red jumpsuit who police detained at the scene, although the man was not immediately identified and it was not clear if he was connected to the shooting.

The man, Denton Loudermill from Olathe, Kansas, later came forward to local media to say that while he was briefly handcuffed for drunkenness, he was not arrested and had "nothing to do" with the gunfire (archived here and here).

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Police briefly detained Denton Loudermill near the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl LVIII victory parade on February 14, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri (AFP / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

A history of 'Sahil Omar' claims

It is not clear whether "Sahil Omar" is a real person, or where such claims originated.

In recent months, social media users have wrongly attached the same character to several other high-profile incidents, including a January hotel explosion in Fort Worth, Texas, and a December shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The earliest X post AFP found blaming "Omar" for the Kansas City shooting comes from "IKB," an account that has on multiple occasions cited "migrant Sahil Omar" as responsible for shootings, fires, explosions and sexual assaults around the world -- while also claiming on multiple occasions that the man had died.

Asked by AFP in an X direct message whether he had any evidence for his claims, the user did not provide any.

Misinformation frequently circulates in the wake of mass shootings, as information gaps leave room for false claims to take hold and flourish. A similar hoax popular on 4chan has seen Sam Hyde, an American comedian, falsely blamed for several attacks.

AFP has debunked false claims about other shootings, including posts misidentifying other perpetrators here, here, here and here.