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| - A live broadcast from KTLA reporter Chip Yost on Jan. 8 confirmed this rumor was false and that the video users shared on X did not show looters. Yost's report documented the same people pictured in the clip on X, identifying them as a group of family members and their friends who banded together to remove items from partially burned home occupied a woman, her three children, dogs and other animals.
A rumor circulating online during the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles County claimed a video showed Black people looting a house of bagged items and a TV.
For example, on Jan. 9, one X user with more than 220,000 followers posted (archived) the clip with the bigoted caption, "The usual suspects are looting again." The post received more than 4.8 million views. The video displayed a watermark for an Instagram user. A check of that Instagram user's page located no such clip, indicating they had removed it.
Other X users also labeled the people in the video as looters, including in a post (archived) receiving more than 9 million views. Another person with more than 266,000 followers who made the looting accusation also called (archived) the people pictured in the clip "Kamala Harris supporters."
However, these users miscaptioned the video, spreading incorrect information about victims still living through the ongoing destruction from the fires. As of this writing, some of these users failed to remove their misleading posts even after receiving a notification of a community note clarifying the truth.
Separate from the false accusations spreading about the video, on Jan. 9, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna announced the arrests of 20 people accused of looting during the fires. He also said he expected that number to increase in the days that followed.
KTLA Report Busts Racially Divisive Rumor
A live broadcast from KTLA reporter Chip Yost on Jan. 8 confirmed this rumor was false and that the video did not show looters. Yost's report documented the same people pictured in the clip on X, identifying them as a group of family members and their friends. A woman identified only as Tiandra said her family and some friends banded together to help remove items from her partially burned home, which she lived in with her three children, dogs and other animals. She also praised the Compton Fire Department for its efforts in helping extinguish a fire either at or near her house. Yost described the home's as being in the community of Altadena, situated on a street marking the border of Altadena and Pasadena.
Yost also spoke with a young man, identified only as Elijah, who Tiandra identified as a child in her home. Elijah appeared in the video shared on X as the young man carrying the bagged items. (The names for Tiandra and Elijah appeared in the report only in spoken form and not on screen, and may be spelled differently.)
KTLA hosts Yost's live report in a lengthy video hosted on its YouTube channel, beginning at the 4:46:04 mark. We will update this story if we locate a source for the two clips displayed in the video shared on X, as they did not appear during the live report.
As of Jan. 10, LA officials said the fires had caused the deaths of at least 10 people. The Associated Press reported roughly 150,000 people remained under evacuation orders, with the fires consuming about 56 square miles.
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