2 weeks ago
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An old and unrelated video of a shootout in New Orleans, United States, is being falsely shared on social media as footage of the assassination of Canada-based gangster Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, the alleged mastermind behind the killing of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, also known as Sidhu Moose Wala.
The video was shared in the backdrop of a rumour on social media, that linked a shootout in Fresno, California, to the alleged assassination of Singh, which was also covered by Indian news outlets.
BOOM found that the viral footage shows a shooting in the city of New Orleans in the US on July 30, 2023, that left two women injured with gunshot wounds. Furthermore, a Lieutenant in the Fresno Police Department rubbished the online rumours of Singh being the shooting victim, in a statement to IANS.
Several users shared the video on X with a caption that read, "#SidhuMooseWala हत्याकांड के मास्टर माइंड गोल्डी बरार की केलिफॉर्निया में गोली मारकर हत्या... #GoldyBrar #SalmanKhan𓃵 #SalmankhanHouseFiring"
Click here to view an archive of one of the viral posts.
The video was also shared with the false caption on Facebook, which can be viewed here.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a few keyframes from the viral video through reverse image search on Google, which led us to a report by WWLTV containing the same video.
The caption with the video read, "Video of a shooting on Industry Street Sunday that left two women injured."
Taking cue from this, we performed keyword searches with "shooting industry street" with search parameters set for results from July 30, 2023 - July 31, 2023.
We came across multiple reports of the shooting, which also contained the viral video. One such report was by local New Orleans TV news channel WDSU, which also added that that there were two victims of the incident injured with gunshot wounds.
The New Orleans Police Department also shared screenshots of the same video, while requesting for information on the shooter.
Furthermore, we also searched for reports on the recent shootout in Fresno, California, with online rumours claiming Singh to be a victim of assassination in the shootout. A statement by Fresno Police Department mentioned that the victim of the shootout was a 37-year-old man named Xavier Gladney.
Lieutenant William J. Dooley of Fresno Police Department rubbished the rumours of Singh being a victim in the shootout. "“If you are inquiring because of the online chatter claiming that the shooting victim is ‘Goldy Brar’, we can confirm that this is absolutely not true," he said in a statement to IANS.
