The shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally in the US left one person dead and 22 injured on Thursday. Police said three people had been taken into custody after the attack near Kansas City’s Union Station.
Police said that two juveniles were among the suspects detained after the mass shooting. They have not yet named the suspects.
However, hours after the incident, social media users linked “44-year-old illegal immigrant Sahil Omar” to the mass shooting in Kansas City.
“At least one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as Sahil Omar, a 44 year old illegal immigrant,” read a post on X, formerly Twitter.
But, there were no credible reports that Sahil Omar was one of the shooters.
The use of a Muslim-sounding name and the false designation as an illegal immigrant is not uncommon on social media. The name “Sahil Omar” came up in the wake of the explosion at the Sandman Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, in January this year as well.
“Sahil Omar” has also been falsely linked to the November 2023 Rainbow Bridge crash on the US-Canada border and the December 2023 shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. But it is unclear whether a real “Sahil Omar” exists and the disinformation appears to be aimed at linking immigrants to mass shootings and crime.
Kansas City Super Bowl Parade Shooting
The shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally that left one person dead and 22 injured, including several children, was a personal altercation and two juveniles were among those detained, police said Thursday.
Up to a million jubilant fans had gathered in unseasonably warm weather for the parade of NFL champions when shots rang out just before 2:00 pm Wednesday.
“There was no nexus to terrorism or homegrown violent extremism. This appeared to be a dispute between several people that ended in gunfire,” Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves told reporters.
“We have subjects detained, two of which are juveniles. We are working to determine the involvement of others,” she said, adding that several firearms were recovered.
(With agency inputs)
