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Tag: staged

  • Book on Charlie Kirk death not proof shooting was staged

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    Hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University, internet users found a book on Amazon that detailed the assassination — with a publication date preceding the shooting.

    “Can someone honestly explain to me how a book titled ‘The Shooting of Charlie Kirk: A Comprehensive Account of the Utah Valley University Attack, the Aftermath, and America’s Response’ was published on Amazon.com on SEPTEMBER 9TH, when the event took place on SEPTEMBER 10TH??” one user wrote Sept. 11 on X.

    “Who Staged Charlie Kirk’s Assassination?” another X user posted. “Author credited as Anastasia J. Casey. Amazon listing (Kindle edition) had a publication date showing September 9, 2025, which is one day before the reported date of the shooting. The listing has reportedly been removed. So who is Anastasia J. Casey?”

    A book with that title by an author listed as Anastasia J. Casey was briefly available on Amazon, and the site showed the book was published Sept. 9.

    But that was a technical error, Amazon said in an email to PolitiFact. The book, which was created using artificial intelligence, was published Sept. 10 after the fatal shooting. The erroneous publication date is not evidence that Kirk’s shooting was planned or staged. The e-book — initially sold for $6.99  — has since been removed from Amazon’s website. 

    “Due to a technical issue, the date of publication that had been displayed for this title, while it was briefly listed, was incorrect, and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused,” Amazon said in its statement. “The title was published late in the afternoon on September 10th.”

    The author’s name also appears to be fabricated. We found no information about the purported author, Anastasia J. Casey; the book about Kirk’s shooting is the only one listed under that name.

    Amazon said the book was removed because it violated the company’s content rules.

    The AI-generated book draws from information that was already available online, such as news reports and public statements from law enforcement officials. And this isn’t the first of its kind. We previously fact-checked a similar instance of an AI-generated e-book that appeared online in the wake of the 2023 Maui wildfires.

    AI-generated books have become increasingly common on Amazon because of tools such as ChatGPT that let users create books in hours, including exploiting breaking news events.

    Users can then self-publish those books, without a literary agent or publishing house, with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service.

    In 2023, Amazon introduced a policy requiring Kindle Direct Publishing authors to disclose whether their creations are AI-generated, including the title, cover art and product description.

    “The Shooting of Charlie Kirk” did not appear to disclose this information.

    A book on Amazon titled “The Shooting of Charlie Kirk” that had an inaccurate publication date is not evidence the event was staged. We rate this claim False. 

    RELATED: ‘Rough road ahead’: Charlie Kirk’s assassination highlights the rise in US political violence 

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  • Husband may have arranged for wife’s slaying in staged burglary, Washington cops say

    Husband may have arranged for wife’s slaying in staged burglary, Washington cops say

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    A man and his friend were arrested after authorities say his wife was found shot to death in their Washington home in what may have been a staged burglary, deputies say.

    A man and his friend were arrested after authorities say his wife was found shot to death in their Washington home in what may have been a staged burglary, deputies say.

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    A man and his friend were arrested after authorities say his wife was found shot to death in their Washington home in what may have been a staged burglary, deputies say.

    The husband, along with two friends, found his wife dead inside a Brush Prairie home on shortly before 7 p.m. March 23, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said in a news alert.

    The next day, deputies said the Eugene Police Department in Oregon arrested the husband’s friend, Darrell Riley, 55, in relation to the 60-year-old woman’s killing.

    The husband may have had Riley stage a burglary “to commit the” killing, deputies say.

    The day of his wife’s killing, deputies said the man picked up Riley from Eugene and drove him to Clark County.

    When deputies initially responded to the home, they said a 2001 black Ford F-150 was “reported stolen from the scene.”

    It was later found with fire damage in rural Benton County, Oregon, deputies said.

    The fire “appears likely to have been intentionally set to destroy evidence of the murder,” according to deputies.

    After searching the home a second time, deputies said the husband was booked into jail on a count of making false statements, according to officials.

    Additional charges against the husband, who “is being considered a suspect” in his wife’s killing, are possible, deputies said.

    Riley, who is facing a first-degree murder charge, is in custody in Oregon, awaiting extradition to Washington, officials said.

    The investigation is ongoing, according to deputies.

    Brush Prairie sits near the Washington-Oregon border, about a 130 mile-drive north of Eugene.

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