At least half a dozen reporters claimed incorrectly Wednesday evening that a suspect connected to a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., was a Qatari citizen named “Tayeep Bin Ardogan.”
But the two suspects involved in the massacre were actually named Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, according to authorities.
The false claim spread quickly after Los Angeles Times reporter Rick Serrano tweeted late Wednesday evening, “#SanBernadino police just released the name of one suspect Tayeep Bin Ardogan, a 28-year-old citizen.”
Serrano’s supposed scoop was soon repeated by the Washington Times and Fox News.
Fox News contributor Lisa Daftari also reported on her Twitter account, “BREAKING: San Bernardino police confirm … the name of the second suspect – Tayyeep Bin Ardogan – a 28-year-old Qatar citizen.”
Wait, @foxnews actually did this. Stunning. #sanbernardino pic.twitter.com/KAgQVHi2Vq
— Andrew Peng (@TheAPJournalist) December 3, 2015
.@WashTimes has deleted their initial ‘Tayyeep Bin Erdogan’ tweet, but article is still up. #sanbernardino pic.twitter.com/rTV9L4SZQB
— Andrew Peng (@TheAPJournalist) December 3, 2015
Though Serrano’s tweet gained traction with a few reporters, many in media questioned the veracity of his claim, suggesting that the name “Tayeep Bin Ardogan” was far too similar to the name of the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for it to be believable.
Others questioned the origin of Serrano’s information.
Something looks suspicious, @RickSerranoLAT… #sanbernardino pic.twitter.com/Ml3UYFnfda
— Andrew Peng (@TheAPJournalist) December 3, 2015
As the night wore on, it became clear: The supposed ID was bogus.
Serrano eventually deleted his original tweet and issued an apology, saying on social media, “SB police clarifying that 2nd name was not released by them. Appears now to be a hoax. We are disregarding.”
The Washington Times also deleted mentions of the story from its social media account, and its original story has been updated to reflect that the claim was false. However, the Times story carries no editor’s note mentioning that it was one of the few newsrooms to fall for the hoax.
The L.A. Times later released a statement addressing Serrano’s mistake.
“Richard Serrano received an email yesterday from a source stating that the San Bernardino police had identified one of the suspects in the mass shooting as Tayeep Bin Ardogan, a 28-year-old Qatari citizen,” the newspaper said.
“Serrano saw that the same information provided by the source was reported by other news organizations and sent a tweet with the information. He subsequently learned that San Bernardino police could not confirm the information and he deleted the tweet and posted an update,” the paper added. “The information in question was not confirmed by the other Los Angeles Times reporters and editors covering the story and it was not included in any of the stories.”
On Wednesday, Farook and his wife, Malik, stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, killing 14 and injuring 21. They were heavily armed with rifles, handguns and improvised explosive devices, according to law enforcement officials.
Farook and Malik were later killed in a shootout with police after trying to flee the city in a high-speed chase.
(h/t TheBlaze)
