Following the assassination of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a campaign event on 8 July, a photo of a person is being shared on social media claiming that he is the "shooter."
The claim states that the shooter is identified as "Samzuki Hydaiko" and that the person is a "known political extremist and Yazuka member."
Abe, 67, was assassinated in Japan's Nara while campaigning for the upcoming election. The suspect is identified as Yamagami Tetsuya, and was arrested at the scene on charges of attempted murder.
However, we found that the man seen in the photo is American comedian and actor Sam Hyde. His full name is Samuel Whitcomb Hyde, and he is famous for pranks and hoax videos.
CLAIM
The photo is being shared along with the claim that reads, "#ShinzoAbe's shooter identified as Samzuki Hydaiko. "A known political extremist and Yakuza member. (sic)"
An archive of the tweet can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND
We conducted a Google reverse image search on the photo and found a video on YouTube posted on 29 September 2018.
The title mentioned the name "Sam Hyde."
We compared the frames of the 2018 video with that in the viral image, and both matched.
Viral photo (L), Screengrab from 2018 video (R).
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Next, we searched on Google for Sam Hyde, and it showed that he is a famous comedian, writer and actor from the United States.
We found a photo of Sam Hyde on IMDb, an online database for all things entertainment, and matched it with the viral image, and clearly it's a match.
Viral photo (L), Photo of Sam Hyde (R).
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Further, as the claim mentioned the name 'Samzuki Hydaiko' identified as the shooter, we looked with multiple keywords, but couldn't find any media report that had used the name.
WHO KILLED ABE?
Yamagami Tetsuya, 41, was tackled by security personnel after he attempted to assasinate the former PM, who was rushed to the hospital in "grave condition" and later succumbed to injury on 8 July.
A gun was confiscated from Tetsuya, who is reportedly a former Maritime Self-Defence Force member, according to The Japan Times.
A resident of Nara City, he was believed to be standing 10 feet behind the Abe when he fired at him.
Yamagami Tetsuya, 41, was tackled by security personnel after he attempted to assasinate the former PM.
(Photo: PTI)
The suspected shooter was reportedly dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him, according to Japan’s NHK World news organisation.
Yamagami Tetsuya was dissatisfied with Abe.
(Photo: Vanguard)
Clearly, American comedian Sam Hyde has been misindentified as the shooter of Japan's longest serving PM, Shinzo Abe.
Interestingly, The Quint's WebQoof team, amid the Russia-Ukraine war, had earlier debunked a claim where the same American comedian was misidentified as Ukrainian ace fighter pilot 'Samuyil Hyde,' dubbed as 'Ghost of Kyiv', who was credited with downing 6 Russian Jets.
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