Several photos of United States comedian Sam Hyde are viral on social media misidentifying him as the gunman who shot the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe (67) was assassinated on July 8, 2022, while giving a speech on a street in Nara city, Japan during a political campaign. The former prime minister collapsed on the street after he was shot and succumbed to his injuries following the attack. Security officials at the scene tackled the suspected gunman and a 41-year-old suspect is currently in police custody, reported BBC News.
In the aftermath of the shooting several photos of Hyde are being shared misidentifying him as the suspect and linking him to the Yakuza crime syndicate in Japan.
Also Read: From Abenomics To Quad: The Career Of Japanese PM Shinzo Abe
The caption of one such viral post reads, "This is Samzuki Hydaiko of the Yakuza crime syndicate, the man who assassinated former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe."
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Another Twitter user tweeted Comedian Sam Hyde's photo and wrote, "Shinzo Abe's shooter identified as Samzuki Hydaiko. "A known political extremist and Yakuza member".
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BOOM also noticed that another picture of the comedian is being shared with a similar false claim.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search and the search results showed credible news reports with details of the suspected shooter that had identified the name of the assassin as Tetsuya Yamagami.
The Japan Times reported that Yamagami (41) had served as Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) officer in his 20s. The report quoted government officials stating that he had served in the MSDF for two years and nine months through 2005 at the Kure base in Hiroshima Prefecture.
According to BBC, Yamagami reportedly admitted shooting Abe and said that he had some hard feelings against a particular organisation.
Yamagishi was taken into custody by security officials at the scene of the shooting. His photo can also be seen in the news report below which was captured after he had shot Abe in Nara city, Japan.
Screengrab: The Japan Times
Pictures Of Sam Hyde
We ran a reverse image search on one of the photos and found an article in The New York Times published on November 6, 2017, with the same photo. The New York Times reported on Hyde's photo being misidentified as the Texas gunman who killed 26 people at a Texas church.
The caption with the photo read, "An image of Sam Hyde from a YouTube video. Anonymous social media accounts have falsely associated him with a number of recent mass killings.Credit...Million DollarExtreme, via YouTube".
Screengrab: The New York Times
The report further stated that the comedian rose to fame due to a widely viewed TED Talk parody he created as a part of Million Dollar Extreme sketch comedy group.
Taking a cue, we ran a selected keyword search using words "Sam Hyde" on YouTube and found details about the other two pictures.
We noticed that one of the images is a screengrab from a video that was uploaded on a verified YouTube channel named LIL SHITPOST on September 11, 2018.
Another photo of Hyde with a white hoodie was previously uploaded in February 2022 by iDubbbz TV channel on YouTube regarding a documentary on the comedian.
Hyde's photos have been previously shared on social media falsely misidentifying him as a suspected shooter in different incidents. One such fact-check report can be read here.
Photo Comparison
A photo comparison of Hyde and the suspected gunman Yamagami can be seen below.
Furthermore, as of writing this report, we did not find any credible report that mentioned the name 'Samzuki Hydaiko' related to the ongoing investigation into the assassination of Abe.
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