Sahil Omar: The 44-year-old man who is ‘linked’ to the Super Bowl parade shooting

A deadly mass shooting disrupted a day of Super Bowl victory celebrations in Kansas City, Missouri, US on Tuesday. The shooting reportedly killed a local radio DJ and injured at least 22 people, including 11 children. Three people, including two juveniles, were detained in connection with the shooting, reports The Guardian. However, their identities and motives for shooting remain unknown. Officials also found some weapons. Several social media users claimed on Wednesday that Sahil Omar was one of the suspects who opened fire at Union Station following the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade. Sahil Omar is a name that appears after nearly every shooting incident and explosion in the United States, and the Kansas City mass shooting is not an exception. But why does his name consistently emerge in connection with these tragic events, and who is Sahil Omar? The case of Sahil Omar “Sahil Omar” is 44, an illegal immigrant and has a Muslim-sounding name — an apparently fictitious punching bag falsely linked to a slew of US crimes including the latest mass shooting in Kansas City. Hours after the Kansas City incident, social media users once again linked Sahil Omar to the mass shooting. “At least one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters identified as Sahil Omar, a 44-year-old illegal immigrant,” said one post on X, without offering any evidence. President Joe Biden has “failed to protect America from invasion and terrorism,” the post added. The rumour started hours after the shots rang out. Within a day of the shooting, which officials said was the result of a personal altercation rather than terrorism, “Sahil Omar” was trending on X. The name wrongly linked to many incidents This is not the first time this character’s name was dragged through the mud. Last month, social media users blamed “44-year-old migrant Sahil Omar” for an explosion at a hotel in the southern state of Texas. [caption id=“attachment_13734092” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Police clear the area following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City, Missouri, US. AP[/caption] But AFP fact-checkers found no reference to this name in official records. Local authorities identified no suspects, suspecting that the explosion was caused by a gas leak. That’s not all. This name has been falsely linked to a host of other high-profile incidents — from an explosion at the US-Canada border crossing at Niagara Falls in November to a deadly shooting the following month at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It was unclear whether a real “Sahil Omar” exists. Disinformation The disinformation appears to be aimed at linking immigrants to mass-shootings and crime. A torrent of online posts blaming “Omar” for tragedies often reference criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of a record wave of illegal migrant crossings from Mexico — a hot-button issue ahead of the US presidential election in November. “I knew it was gonna be an illegal!!!” said a post on TikTok that wrongly linked “Omar” to the Kansas shooting. “They are all about violence. Ship them back to where they came from!!” [caption id=“attachment_13734132” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] People leave a victory rally celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl 58 win after a shooting following the event Wednesday at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, US. AP[/caption] Disinformation often follows US mass shootings and other high-profile events. Before “Omar,” false claims blaming American comedian Sam Hyde followed a series of tragedies, smearing his name in a long-running hoax popular on 4chan. What exactly happened Up to a million jubilant fans had gathered in unseasonably warm weather for the NFL champions parade when shots rang out just before 2.00 pm on Wednesday. In the ensuing chaos, fans were told to get out of the area as soon as possible, separating children from their parents. Reunification stations were later set up inside the station, as per US News. Photos from the event showed injured viewers being helped from the scene, some of them being carried out on stretchers. “I can’t believe it really happened. Who in their right mind would do something like this?” Lisa Money of Kansas City, told The Associated Press. “This is supposed to be a day of celebration for everybody in the city and the surrounding area and then you’ve got some idiot that wants to come along and do something like this,” she added. The shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally was a personal altercation, police said Thursday, reports NDTV. “There was no nexus to terrorism or homegrown violent extremism. This appeared to be a dispute between several people that ended in gunfire,” Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves told reporters. “We have subjects detained, two of which are juveniles. We are working to determine the involvement of others,” she said, adding that several firearms were recovered. With inputs from AFP