Toronto man fights fake news that he shot U.S. influencer Charlie Kirk

Michael Mallinson had never met Charlie Kirk, nor had he ever heard the name of the American right-wing commentator who was shot dead in broad daylight at a Utah college event.

Michael Mallinson had never met Charlie Kirk, nor had he ever heard the name of the American right-wing commentator who was shot dead in broad daylight at a Utah college event on Wednesday.

But the retired Torontonian has done some research about him after his death.

“I gather that he appeals to young conservatives. I’m an old socialist. I guess that’s the best way I could put it,” Mallinson said in a phone interview.

They would never have come across each other, but a piece of viral online misinformation has tied Mallinson to Kirk’s story. Now the former banker, 77, is fighting to make the truth understood: he is decidedly not the person who put a bullet in the controversial commentator’s neck.

Mallinson said he and his family are horrified to see his name and likeness falsely connected on a variety of social media platforms to a “heinous crime” he did not commit.

“I just felt shocked and in horror. I was bemused. I wasn’t quite believing it,” the retiree said. “I was bewildered why this would have happened.”

He found out about his weird newfound fame after waking up from a post-shopping trip nap on Wednesday to a call from his daughter. She was begging him to delete his social media accounts.

“She was a bit panicked and she was, you know, kind of shouting at me that I had to do it now, now, and I didn’t quite understand what was happening,” he said.