An image circulating online claims to show the same woman at three different tragedies: The Aurora, Colorado theater shooting, the Sandy Hook shooting, and the Boston Bombing.
THE CLAIM IS FALSE.
The identities of all three women are known, and they are not the same person. Let’s take a look at the image being circulated, the claim associated with it, and the identities of the women in the photos.
AURORA SHOOTING
The woman in the photograph is Amanda Medek. Some press photos taken of her sitting on a flight of steps included the caption, “Amanda Medek, who is looking for her sister Micayla, sits outside Gateway High School, Friday July 20, 2012, in Aurora, Colo.”
SANDY HOOK SHOOTING
The woman shown in the Sandy Hook photo above is Carlee Soto, who had just found out her sister Vicky Soto was dead. A caption for the iconic photo read: Carlee Soto learns that her sister Vicky Soto is among those killed in the school shooting.
BOSTON BOMBING
The official caption for the image being circulated stated: Emma MacDonald and two friends were photographed at a vigil for the Boston victims.
We could not locate a candid of Emma MacDonald, but below is are two images of her snapped at the Boston vigil:
BOTTOM LINE
The same woman was not photographed at three different tragedies. The images show three different women who were each photographed crying at the three respective tragedies. The identities of each of the women are known, and they are completely unrelated. A cursory resemblance and similarities in the expressions of the three women were used to make this easily disputed claim.
Sources
- Photos from the shootings in Colorado (Star Tribune: July 21, 2012)
- Portrait of a sister’s grief: Woman clutches picture of beloved sibling shot dead in Aurora massacre (Daily Mail: July 26, 2012)
- ‘It’s a reminder all over again, it kills’: Vicki Soto’s sister talks about gut-wrenching picture of her crying that has come to represent the Sandy Hook massacre (Dail Mail: December 18, 2012)
- Candlelight vigil spreads messages of peace and love in Boston (Christian Science Monitor: April 16, 2013)
http://www.wafflesatnoon.com/same-woman-at-aurora-sandy-hook-and-boston/
why is she squallin at sandy hook if the fbi admitted it was fake?
I wasn’t aware that the FBI had admitted that Sandy Hook was a fake. I did see the end of the year report that DID NOT list the deaths at Sandy Hook; however, I believe that the report was published before the Sandy Hook incident. The real question that needs to be answered is this: “Did the FBI report for the following year list the Sandy Hook deaths?”