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| - The 4chan user provided no proof of identity.
Hours after the July 13, 2024, rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that was the scene of an attempt to assassinate former U.S. President Donald Trump, a post appeared on 4chan, the controversial online forum. The poster claimed to have been one of the police snipers at the rally (archived):
(boards.4chan.org/pol)
The post, time-stamped July 14, 2024, at 2:03 a.m., read:
My name is Jonathan Willis, I'm the officer in the famous photo of the two snipers on the roof at Trump's rally. I came here to inform the public that I had the assassin in my sights for at least 3 minutes, but the head of the secret service refused to give the order to take out the perp. 100% the top brass prevented me from killing the assassin before he took the shots at president Trump.
4chan is a forum on which users can post anonymously, something that has allowed in the past for wild conspiracy theories and unfounded claims to take hold and spread into the mainstream.
Shortly thereafter, the screenshot of this post appeared on several other social media platforms like X (including in languages other than English) and Reddit with expressions of outrage and demands for further inquiry (archived):
The original poster did not provide any proof of identity, however, and no evidence backing up the post's claims. For this reason, we deemed the claim "Unfounded."
Further, local police and Pennsylvania State Police listed no one by the name of Jonathan Willis on their websites. We called the police department in Butler, which confirmed no one of that name was part of its team. We also called Pennsylvania State Police to ask the same question. "Jonathan Willis is not an employee of Pennsylvania State Police," the agency responded.
4chan users who commented on the post displayed similar skepticism, and repeatedly asked for proof of identity and sources for the author's claims. "Monitoring this sniper for about 3 mins, then I'm taking the shot on the Xclose tab button," one snarked. "Proofs or f*** off," another retorted.
It is true, however, that security experts expressed concerns about the security at the rally, suggesting that the security team — which included members of the Butler police, but also State Police and the Secret Service — had made a mistake by not securing the building or the roof from which the alleged assassin fired his rifle.
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