Clip of casino gunman is unrelated to Charlie Kirk assassination

Published on September 12, 2025 at 00:06
3 min read
By AFP USA

A video of a man running across a parking lot gathered millions of views on X in the hours following the killing of prominent right-wing US activist, Charlie Kirk, who was shot during an event at a university in state of Utah. But the clip is from a shooting in Reno, Nevada that happened months prior to Kirk's death.

"New video surfaces showing Charlie Kirk's real shooter escaping after the shooting #ChirlieKirk #BreakingNews #charliekirkvideo #charliekirkshot," a September 11, 2025 post reads.

A screenshot of an X post taken on September 11, 2025

The video circulated across X and other social media platforms, hours after the assassination of polarizing political figure Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump.

Officials are treating the gunning down of Kirk, 31, as a politically motivated act amid an increasingly violent political scene in the United States.

Two men were briefly detained and released after being questioned by law enforcement officials.

A manhunt continued for the gunman as of 2200 GMT on September 11, 2025 and the FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his identification and arrest (archived here).

But the clip shared on social media is unrelated to the case.

Stills of the video obtained via the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, revealed an identical match for the video on YouTube, dating back to July 2025 and describing a suspect fleeing the scene of a shooting at a resort in Reno, Nevada (archived here).

The situation is also described in a video summarizing the actions of police and sharing dash camera footage on the Reno Police Department's YouTube channel (archived here).

"On July 28th, 2025, at approximately 7:25 in the morning, the Reno Police Department along with multiple partnering agencies responded to the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, which is located at 2500 East Second Street in Reno, on the report of an active shooter," Captain Robert Larson (archived here) says in the video.

A Google Street View image (archived here) of the address described by Larson visually matches what is falsely presented as footage of Kirk's shooter escaping.

A screenshot of an image published on Google Street View taken on September 11, 2025 with elements circled by AFP

A keyframe of the video shared on social media captured in InVID on September 11, 2025

A keyframe of the video shared on social media captured in InVID on September 11, 2025 with elements circled by AFP

Larson said officers arrived on the scene within two and a half minutes of the first reports of an active shooter at the resort, and "immediately located the suspect" in its parking lot.

Officers exchanged fire with the suspect, who was identified as Dakota Hawver.

Hawver, who killed three people, died at the hospital in the overnight hours following the shooting.

AFP reached out to Reno police, but a response was not forthcoming.

AFP investigated additional posts misidentifying the suspect which spread rapidly on social media after Kirk's assassination.

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