Posts falsely identify Trump shooter as 'Hank Pecker'

"Trump Rally Shooter has been identified as 32 year old, California resident, Hank Pecker," says a July 13 Threads post sharing a photo of a man in sunglasses carrying what appears to be an assault-style rifle.

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Screenshot of a Threads post taken July 15, 2024

Trump was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents after a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing a bystander and critically injuring two attendees. The former president said on his Truth Social platform that a bullet "pierced the upper part of my right ear" (archived here).

The attempted assassination has fueled a slew of misinformation and conspiracy theories online -- including posts misidentifying the shooter.

The FBI has identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania (archived here).

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An undated image obtained July 14, 2024 shows a driver's license photograph of Thomas Matthew Crooks (AFP / HANDOUT)

Crooks fired multiple shots "toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue" before Secret Service snipers shot and killed him, said Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, in a statement shared on X (archived here).

Reverse image and keyword searches found the man pictured in the social media posts is Hasan Piker, a popular Twitch streamer and liberal commentator also known as HasanAbi (archived here).

Piker originally shared the photo in a February 19, 2022 Instagram post (archived here).

"74$ for a box of .48s. this is brandon's fault," he said in the caption, referencing a coded insult against President Joe Biden.

According to the gaming news site Dot Esports, "Hank Pecker" is a character Piker often uses to parody Trump supporters (archived here). Piker posted a YouTube video August 21, 2022 in which he adopted the persona (archived here). 

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the assassination attempt on Trump here.