Nikolas Cruz, the alleged Florida shooter, doesn’t appear to be linked to a white supremacist group after all, despite numerous media reports claiming he was.
According to police, Cruz was the shooter that gunned down 17 teachers and students at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland on Feb. 14.
On Thursday, reports emerged linking Cruz to white supremacist group The Republic of Florida.
However, just hours later, users of an obscure forum claimed to have fed reporters false information, and law enforcement officials also said they found no evidence of a link.
Despite the scant original evidence, many media outlets reported the alleged link.
Multiple outlets such as the Huffington Post, ABC News, and The Associated Press reported the link, with no other evidence supporting the claim.
The reports came even as law enforcement officials emphasized that they had found no evidence linking Cruz to the Republic of Florida or any other groups.
Users of 4Chan emerged claiming that they were behind the stories, even posting screenshots of conversations that appeared to happen between a user and an ABC News reporter.
The ABC News reporter asks for evidence that Cruz was linked to the Republic of Florida, but all the user responds with is that it was “common knowledge.”
Law enforcement officials stressed that no link has been found, though the investigation is ongoing.
It was also later pointed out that Jereb was labeled as a “publicity seeker” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“In April 2017, Michael Tubbs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the League of the South, a well-known hate group, wrote that Jereb ‘never misses a photo op’ and called him ‘a nut job who should be avoided.'”
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