CNN chyrons labeling New York shooter as white are fake

"You absolutely cannot hate the media enough!! Especially CNN!!" says a July 28, 2025 post from Juanita Broaddrick, who accused former US president Bill Clinton of rape in 1999 and has repeatedly spread misinformation on X, where she has 1.8 million followers.

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Screenshot from X taken July 29, 2025

The post supposedly depicts a CNN broadcast showing the New York City gunman carrying an M-4 rifle. The text in the lower third of the screen reads: "Police are looking for a white male average build."

Similar posts popped up across platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Other posts showed a close-up photo of the alleged perpetrator above a purported CNN chyron saying, "Shooting suspect appears to be a white male."

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Screenshot from X taken July 29, 2025

The claims spread after the July 28 shooting in an office tower housing the National Football League, hedge fund giant Blackstone and auditor KPMG, where a gunman opened fire in the lobby and again on the 33rd floor before killing himself. Officers found him next to his weapon.

Police later identified the attacker as Shane Tamura from Las Vegas, Nevada, saying he is believed to have acted alone and had a history of mental health issues.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said July 29 that a suicide note Tamura carried referenced chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a known brain injury associated with contact sports. Adams said the shooter was targeting the NFL offices.

AFP did not find official documentation of Tamura's race, and the supposed CNN chyrons identifying Tamura as a "white male" are fabricated.

"These images are fake and doctored," a CNN spokesperson told AFP in a July 29 email, adding that the network never aired either chyron.

About an hour after the attack and before police had found the suspect, CNN analyst John Miller reported on air that "they know he is a male, possibly white, he's wearing sunglasses, he appears to have a mustache." Anchor Erin Burnett then repeated that the shooter was "male, possibly white, mustache, sunglasses."

The network later reported when the gunman was "tentatively identified" as a 27-year-old from Las Vegas and subsequently named.

Both of the fake chyrons use different fonts and formats than authentic CNN broadcasts. One of them also carries a watermark indicating it originated with "@TheRicanMemes," a conservative meme account on X.

AFP has previously debunked several other fake CNN broadcasts, including a similar fabricated chyron that purported to show the network describing a mass shooter in Maine as "factually Arabic, but morally white."