Roma fan and writer Marco Violi went viral after being falsely accused of being the shooter at the Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
The 45th United States President was shot on stage during an election rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, suffering a minor injury to his right ear. One spectator at the event was killed and two others were left critically injured.
Whilst the shooter has now been reportedly identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, speculation was rife in the hours immediately following the incident, allowing some mischievous Italian football fans to start a rumour that started to spread like wildfire.
Roma fan falsely accused
Twitter user ‘Moussolinho’ posted a photo of Roma writer Violi and wrote: “Breaking: According to the Butler Police Department, the Trump shooter has been arrested at the scene and identified as Mark Violets, a rabid antifa member.”
The post quickly began to spread outside the circles of Italian football, with a number of tweets repeating the mean-spirited joke getting millions of views.
BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh even commented on the incident, obviously confirming that ‘Mark Violets’ (a direct translation of Marco Violi) was not the shooter and was just a Roma fan.
Roma writer Violi was predictably unimpressed with the joke and made a statement on his Instagram story in the early hours of the morning.
“Hello,
“I categorically deny that I am involved in this situation. I was woken up in the middle of the night (at 2am in Italy to be precise) by numerous notifications I received on Instagram and on my X account. I am in Italy, I am in Rome and had no idea what had happened until I watched Sky TG 24 in Italy, which I am still following.
“The news circulating about me is totally unfounded and is organized by a group of haters who have been ruining my life since 2018, even with stakeouts at my residence, photos of my intercom and my front door. These are real stalkers. The X accounts that organized all of this are @logikseo and @moussolinho (the latter I have seen has deactivated their X account).
“I have nothing else to add. On Monday, I will file a complaint against the X accounts that invented the false news and all the journalistic sources that spread the false news. Being a journalist since 2006, I know very well that all sources need to be verified before putting a presumed monster on the front page.
“I have nothing else to add. I kindly ask to be left in peace because I am a victim of all this. I have been a victim since 2018 and there is also a criminal proceeding underway against these haters.”
The White House and mainstream news have MISTAKENLY labeled #ASRoma journalist @MarcoVioli83 as the attempted assassinator of President Donald Trump: pic.twitter.com/DpkfRGGs2F
— Wayne Girard (@WayneinRome) July 14, 2024