New Orleans attacker: How false claims about the suspect spread
Al Jazeera
A Fox News report fuelled the spread of misinformation online – including a claim the suspect was an illegal immigrant.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old suspected driver in the New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans, was a United States citizen and US Army veteran.
But within hours of the attack – which killed 15 people and is being investigated as an act of terrorism – President-elect Donald Trump, Republican leaders and social media influencers speculated that Jabbar entered the US illegally.
Citing Fox News, social media accounts on January 1 said Jabbar “crossed the US-Mexico border at the Eagle Pass crossing just two days ago” and that there was “blood on the hands of the Biden administration”.
US Representative for Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a 38-second Fox News clip and wrote on X that Jabbar “is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!!”
