Mistaken identity: namesakes of alleged Texas and Ohio shooters Patrick Crusius and Connor Betts face online death threats
- Such mix-ups are common after mass shootings as misinformation and rumours spread via social media
- Threats continue despite clarifications, prompting at least one family to call police for protection
Hundreds of miles away from Saturday’s mass shooting at a Walmart in Texas, an Alabama man received a wave of death threats on social media because he has the misfortune of sharing a name with the man suspected of slaying 22 people in El Paso.
“I’ve got two young kids at the house. I’m worried for our safety and our safety in our home,” said Rebecca Calla Toulmin, speaking for her fiancé, Patrick Crusius, a 33-year-old salesman from Montgomery, the state’s capital city.
Crusius’ namesake is the 21-year-old who police say travelled about 1,050km (650 miles) from his hometown in Allen, Texas, to El Paso, where he opened fire indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, Connor Betts, an 18-year-old in Cleveland, was living an identical nightmare to the Alabama man. Betts was mistaken for another suspected gunman, also named Connor Betts, who is accused of carrying out a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, hours after the El Paso massacre.
“I’m not him,” Betts said in a post on Facebook. “So please stop misidentifying me for him. I’m no way shape or form associated.” He did not respond to a request for comment.
With misinformation and rumours spreading unchecked through social media, cases of mistaken identity have become all to common in mass shootings.