Thomas M. Crooks, not ‘Mark Violets,’ named as Trump shooter

The attempted assassination of President Donald Trump prompted numerous false reports on social media platforms about the suspected shooter’s identity. Before authorities announced their suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, early July 14, some users blamed the shooting on “Mark Violets,” a person supposedly affiliated with antifa who posted a warning on social media. 

“BREAKING: Butler Police confirm the shooter’s name is Mark Violets. He is a known Antifa extremist,” a Facebook post of an X screenshot said. “Before the attack, he uploaded a YouTube video with the chilling statement: ‘Justice is coming.’ He was right. The shooter is dead.”

“The #Trump shooter, Mark Violets, has been killed. He uploaded a video on YouTube before the attack, claiming ‘justice was coming.’ Well justice came for nobody but himself,” another Facebook post said.

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) 

The man in the video had nothing to do with shooting. His name is not Mark Violets; he is an Italian sports blogger.

The FBI identified the shooter as Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Secret Service agents killed Crooks after the shooting, the Secret Service said in a statement.

After several posts misidentifying him as the shooter gained traction on social media, Marco Violi posted a statement in Italian on Instagram denying involvement in the shooting. 

“I strongly deny being involved in this situation,” Violi said according to Instagram’s translation of the post. “I’m in Italy, I’m in Rome and I didn’t have the slightest idea what happened.”

Violi said he was awakened at 2 a.m. in Italy by the notifications tying him to the shooting. He said he would file complaints against the accounts that made the baseless accusations. 

On July 3, Violi posted on Instagram in Italian, saying “the battle is only beginning, the rest is yet to come,” according to a Google translation of the post. But there’s no evidence the post had anything to do with Trump. None of Violi’s posts on Instagram over the past few months have mentioned Trump or U.S. politics. In his latest YouTube video posted July 9, Violi spoke about a Georgian soccer player’s negotiations with various European teams. (PolitiFact used Voice Translator: AI Translate to translate the video.) 

Violi’s social media and blog posts revolve around soccer.

We rate posts saying that “Mark Violets” was the shooter at Trump’s rally Pants on Fire!