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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

6,857 published reviews in this topic

PolitiFactCrime & justice

“BREAKING: Apalachee High School shooter has been identified as non-binary trans girl Samantha Hyde.”

Publisher’s rating: Pants on Fire

The claim links a named person, “Samantha Hyde,” to the Apalachee High School shooting and describes that person as a non-binary trans girl. The supplied research reporting covers the same shooting, which occurred on Sept. 4, 2024, in Winder, Georgia, but identifies the accused shooter as Colt Gray—not Samantha Hyde. Fox News calls Gray “the Apalachee High School shooting suspect” and says he “was identified as 14-year-old Colt Gray, a student.” Other reports in the evidence also name Colt Gray in connection with that specific attack. Atlanta News First reports that “Colt Gray is accused of killing four people and injuring nine others on Sept. 4, 2024,” and describes his father’s trial as related to the shooting. A separate Atlanta News First report says a student witness “identified as Colt Gray” the shooter she saw. This supports a discrepancy between the name in the claim and the name used in reporting about the accused shooter in this event. The excerpts do not establish that Samantha Hyde was another name for Colt Gray, nor do they report on the accused shooter’s gender identity. So the supplied evidence supports identifying the person charged in the shooting as Colt Gray, but it does not independently resolve the claim’s gender-identity description or document where the “Samantha Hyde” wording originated. This assessment is based on related reporting, not an original PolitiFact article.