Conservative influencers blame Brown University shooting on a “leftist activist”

On Saturday, a gunman opened fire on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, killing two students and wounding nine more. The shooter escaped, and students sheltered in place overnight as authorities tried to track down a person of interest who had appeared in a low-quality security camera video. One suspect was apprehended, but on Sunday, authorities released him.

On Monday, the shooter still had not been identified or apprehended—but that didn’t stop a host of conservative influencers from insisting on social media that the perpetrator must have been a disgruntled leftist. Why? Because one of the two victims, 19-year-old Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, was president of the campus Republicans. (The other was identified as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Virginia whose political beliefs thus far have not been reported on.)

Cook’s tragic death was enough to whip the conspiracy machine into high gear. Early Monday morning, Elon Musk reposted to his 229 million followers a since-deleted tweet blaming the left for the shooting. He commented, “The murderous indoctrination needs to stop now.”

The theory about the targeting of Cook seems to have gained significant traction from an X account with the handle @AutismCapital, which announced to nearly a million followers that “the police explicitly claimed it was likely a targeted attack to [Cook’s] family and that when he came in the room he looked specifically for her first before he fired?” The post didn’t mention that there has been no credible reporting about the shooters’ motive or his actions before he fired the first shot, only rumors on social media.

After this, Katherine Boyle, a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, reposted that tweet and added her own thoughts in a post to her 95,000 followers: “Now young men and women like Ella know they can be killed for their political beliefs on a college campus, even if they’re not provocateurs or influencers or public officials, just normal young people participating in a student club.”

Shaun Maguire, a partner at the firm Sequoia Capital with 295,000 followers, also retweeted the post from @AutismCapital, commenting, “To the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and now to the tragic murder of Ella Cook, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that we’re not getting the truth fast enough from law enforcement and our media … when it doesn’t fit their narrative.”

Far-right influencer and Trump favorite, Laura Loomer, tweeted to her 1.8 million followers, “Jewish and Christian conservative students and faculty targeted at Brown University and they want you to think western civilization isn’t under attack.” She also repeated an unconfirmed rumor that the shooter had shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” before opening fire.

Vickie Palladino, a conservative New York City councilwoman, posted to her 38,000 followers, “Very clear now that the attack at Brown was perpetrated by a leftist activist and targeted Republicans. The people who openly celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder en masse and faced exactly zero consequences for it have been emboldened to kill more conservatives.” The tweet has since been deleted.

Raw Egg Nationalist, a British far-right influencer, put his own spin on the leftism-run-amok theory. He implied in a post to his 309,000 followers that the shooting occurred because the left had not been sufficiently punished for conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder. “I hate to say it, but it’s true: Charlie Kirk’s murder has shown the left they can get what they want by killing right wingers,” he wrote. “They killed the most important young right winger in America, a surrogate son to the president, at basically no cost to themselves. Just one person arrested. No reprisals or even real threat of reprisals. Of course, there are going to be more murders.”

Another unproven narrative making the rounds was that the attack was an act of antisemitic terrorism because the venue was a study session for a popular lecture class that happened to be taught by a Jewish professor. “Prof Rachel Friedberg, whose class at ⁦@BrownUniversity⁩ was targeted last night by a shooter, taught at Hebrew University and advised the Knesset on immigration to Israel, among other credentials,” Naomi Wolf, the feminist writer turned Covid conspiracy theorist, posted to her 489,000 followers. “I wonder who the shooter was and what could have possibly motivated him?”

In response to the shooting, President Trump offered only a few terse words. “Brown University, great school,” he said. “Great, really, one of the greatest schools anywhere in the world. Things can happen.”

Meanwhile, Trump took to social media to opine about the murder of film director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, which occurred the day after the shooting at Brown. The president baselessly suggested that the Reiners’ progressive politics contributed to their untimely deaths. The murder was “reportedly due to the anger [Reiner] caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial. “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.” Reiner’s son Nick, who has struggled with drug addiction, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Monday.