New claims about the two mass shootings over the weekend in Texas and Ohio continue to surface and our VERIFY team is working separate the facts from fiction.
At the bottom of this post, there’s a submission form where you can submit your questions or claims you've seen for the team to review.
The VERIFY team has also looked into the link between mental health and shootings and misleading claims about the shooter's political motivations.
AFTER THE SHOOTINGS DID TRUMP DELETE TWEETS WHERE HE CALLED IMMIGRANTS “INVADERS?”
This claim comes from a viral tweet that shared screenshots of multiple posts from President Trump and claimed that his “team” had deleted tweets where he had previously used the word “invaders” to describe immigrants.
It also claimed that this act was a violation of the Presidential Records Act.
The problem is that none of the president's tweets referenced above were actually deleted off his account. They’re all still online.
The woman who made the initial claim later changed her tune and said it was two other tweets the president had deleted.
But those tweets were actually condemning the El Paso shooter and Trump removed them for editing and reposted them later that day.
That means this post is FALSE. The president did not delete any of these previous tweets in response to the shootings over the weekend.
DID ICE AGENTS CHECK FOR CITIZENSHIP AT REUNIFICATION CENTERS?
Another viral post, this time from Facebook, claimed that ICE agents had shown up on the scene of the El Paso shooting and were checking for citizenship papers at the family reunification centers.
This is a frightening claim for some and there were conversations about undocumented immigrants who may avoid hospitals or public places for fear of being checked while seeking treatment.
Customs and Border Protection, who oversees ICE, posted two statements related to this.
The agency said that ICE officers and special agents did respond to the crime scene initially to assist law enforcement as part of an “all-law-enforcement-agency response” to the shooting.
But said that their officers do not conduct immigration enforcement during tragedies and later added that they are not “conducting enforcement” at hospitals, reunification centers or shelters.
So while people may have seen ICE officers at the scene, the claim that they were there to check for citizenship papers is FALSE.
DID THE EL PASO SHOOTER POST TRUMP’S NAME SPELLED IN GUNS?
Another Facebook post claimed that the El Paso shooter posted a picture of President Trump’s name spelled out in guns.
A few things to note about this claim. The suspect's Twitter account was quickly suspended after the deadly attack, so it’s impossible now to know exactly what all he posted.
Before it was deleted, people pulled the "Trump" gun picture, but the suspect didn’t post it himself. He just liked it from someone else’s page.
This post by “John Doe” to be specific.
A reverse image search shows this image has been circulating online since at least 2017.
So while the shooter definitely liked and shared the post, he didn’t create it himself.
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