Spurious Biden, Trump Claims Swirl Around Monterey Park Shooting Suspect

As details come to light surrounding the Monterey Park shooting that left 11 people dead, social media has begun to speculate about the background of the suspected perpetrator.

Huu Can Tran, 72, is alleged to have opened fire at a dance studio in the predominantly Asian American suburb of Monterey Park, California, on Saturday, January 21, 2023, as visitors celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Authorities said the suspect was found in a van around 30 miles southwest of the scene. Although little information has been made available about him, he is thought to be the oldest mass shooting suspect in a decade.

However, as has been the case with other mass shootings before, this information vacuum has allowed spurious and unverified claims to take hold.

In the case of this latest incident, a series of rumors have been shared online about the political affiliations of the suspect, variously that he was a Biden or Trump supporter.

One tweet shared by Twitter user @amuse, on January 23, 2023, which has been viewed more than 70,000 times, claimed both that the alleged shooter was "a Biden supporter" and that "Democrats" had said he was a "white racist Trump supporter."

Another account, Erica Marsh, which has been linked to unverified claims assessed by Newsweek, tweeted on January 22, 2023: "It appears that the Monterey Park shooter was an ULTRA MAGA Donald Trump supporter. Not surprised. Prayers for all the victims."

However, as discovered by Newsweek and others, there is no verifiable data at this stage that suggests either of these claims is true nor is there any other similar information about the suspect's political affiliations.

The tweet by Marsh, which appears to have since been deleted, was screengrabbed by by misinformation expert Dr. Caroline Orr who tweeted: "There's *zero* evidence that the Monterey Park shooter was an "ULTRA MAGA Donald Trump supporter."

"Please don't let her make a fool out of you by retweeting her nonsense engagement bait," she added.

There is no database that provides information about the suspect's political persuasion and no other evidence or information that, at this stage, indicates or confirms the shooter's political affiliations; nor is there evidence yet of any political motivation.

Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo suggested to NBC News that the suspect's ex-wife, who was attending the celebrations, may be linked to his motive.

"My understanding is that he may have come because his ex-wife was reveling, celebrating the Lunar New Year, and it sounded like there was a history of domestic violence, which is unfortunate," Lo told NBC News.

Culprits in previous mass shootings have been subject to baseless claims on social media, even before many facts of these incidents have been established, seemingly to further online political agendas.

Following the shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas high school in May 2022, the perpetrator was alleged to have been transgender based on photos shared on Twitter and elsewhere.

However, as Newsweek discovered, none of the photos were the shooter or verifiable as him. Some were stolen from a profile on Reddit while others came from the online message board 4Chan, a website that has long been associated with misinformation.

Newsweek has called Monterey Park Police for comment.