A lawsuit was filed last month against several media organizations and far-right podcasters who wrongly identified Mauricio Garcia, a Texas man, as a neo-Nazi mass shooter involved in a tragic incident in Allen, Texas. The lawsuit alleges that Fox News, Newsmax, Tim Pool, Steven Crowder, Owen Shroyer, among others, shared Garcia’s image in their coverage of the mass shooting, linking him to the real shooter who shared the same name. Garcia’s lawsuit states that these media organizations misidentified the shooter between May 7 and May 9 and failed to retract their false reporting even after being notified of the error.
One of the defendants, Tim Pool, suggested on his podcast that the shooting could be a government conspiracy and questioned the authenticity of the shooter’s social media profile. Pool’s media group had already published a photo of the innocent Garcia on its website, despite his claims that he did not want to show photos of the potential shooter. Another defendant, Owen Shroyer, displayed Garcia’s photo on his Infowars program while making derogatory comments about him being a white supremacist. Steven Crowder, who was also named in the lawsuit, allegedly displayed Garcia’s photo on his show and identified him as the shooter, despite evidence to the contrary.
The real shooter was identified as a 33-year-old white supremacist who killed eight people and wounded seven others at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas. He had neo-Nazi beliefs and tattoos that verified his extremist ideologies. However, despite this evidence, some individuals on the right, including Elon Musk, dismissed the idea that the shooting could’ve been motivated by right-wing extremism. The lawsuit filed by Garcia seeks more than $1 million in damages for the defamation and harm caused to him and his family as a result of the false reporting by these media organizations and podcasters.
Mauricio Garcia’s lawsuit contains a letter that his mother sent to a Univision journalist after seeing her son’s photo on the network. The letter detailed the impact of the false reporting on their lives, stating that they had received death threats and hatred due to the misidentification. The lawsuit also mentions that Garcia is being represented by Mark Bankston, who previously represented Sandy Hook parents in a successful case against Alex Jones. Bankston is also currently representing a Jewish man who was falsely linked to a neo-Nazi brawl by Elon Musk.
Despite demands for retractions and corrections, the defendants in the case have allegedly failed to publish any apologies or corrections for their false reporting of Garcia as the neo-Nazi mass shooter. Fox News, Tim Pool, Steven Crowder, Owen Shroyer, and other media organizations have been accused of disregarding basic journalistic safeguards and rushing to publish sensationalized stories linking an innocent man to a tragic incident. The lawsuit highlights the importance of accurate reporting and the potential harm caused by spreading false information about individuals, especially in cases involving serious crimes and extremism.
