Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) spreads a baseless rumor that the Texas shooter was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.”
“It’s a transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos,” Gosar said in tweet about the shooter. The tweet was deleted about two hours after being posted on Tuesday, according to Insider.
The claim that shooter is transgender was spreading online along with photos taken off the reddit account of a transgender artist that had nothing to do with the massacre.
“It’s not me, I don’t even live in Texas,” the person using that account wrote on Reddit. “They just took my photos and used it to spread misinformation,” the person added in the comment section of one of the post.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott identified the shooter as Salvatore Ramos an 18-year-old male who lived in Uvalde, Texas where the shooting occurred. Authorities say he shot his grandmother, leaving her in critical condition before driving to Robb Elementary School with a handgun and an AR-15 he allegedly purchased on his 18th birthday.
Ramos barricaded himself in a classroom and “started shooting children, teachers, whoever’s in his way,” Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
He killed 21 people including ,19 children and 2 teachers, and injured several others.
A Border Patrol agent who was working nearby rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the Ramos. Border Patrol have confirmed that he was a US citizen.
