Misidentified As Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspects, Two Innocent People Face Online Threats

Two people wrongly identified online as suspects in the fatal shooting of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk say they have been left terrified after becoming targets of threats and harassment.

Michaela, a 29-year-old transgender woman from Washington state, told AFP she was “really scared” after her photo spread across social media with false claims linking her to the Utah attack.

“I’m getting witch-hunted online. Some people want to enact vigilante justice on me,” she said.

Bank records, iPhone location data, and testimony from her roommate confirm Michaela was in Washington when Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University. She says the false link appears to have been made after her profile photo was indexed in searches tied to another user posting about Kirk’s event.

“People on the right wing… they want a shooter, and a trans person fits their narrative,” she said. “It’s pretty surreal to see how quickly it happened.”

Meanwhile, in Canada, 77-year-old retired banker Michael Mallinson also found himself falsely accused after X users misidentified him as a suspect. The hoax began with an account impersonating a Nevada news station.

Mallinson said he was “horrified and shocked” when his daughter alerted him. “It’s my image, it’s my name, but it’s not me, and I don’t really know what to do. That stuff stays on social media forever.” He has since deactivated his accounts and contacted police.

The FBI on Thursday released images of a person of interest and confirmed the presumed murder weapon had been recovered. Two individuals initially taken into custody were released.

The wave of misinformation underscores how quickly false claims often targeting marginalized groups spread online after high-profile shootings, amplifying fear, confusion, and real-world risks for the wrongly accused.