Blast at historic Texas hotel is being investigated as a natural gas explosion, no suspect is being sought
CLAIM: A 44-year-old migrant named Sahil Omar was identified as the suspect of an explosion at a historic hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. No such suspect is being sought in relation to the explosion, a police spokesperson told The Associated Press. Authorities say the blast “has the characteristics of a natural gas explosion,” but that the cause is still under investigation. The same name and description was used to make a similar erroneous claim about a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, last month.
THE FACTS: Following a massive explosion at the Sandman Signature Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, social media users began falsely pinning the blast on a 44-year-old migrant.
READ MORE : Bitcoin ETF hopefuls still expect SEC approval despite social media hack
“BREAKING: The suspect of the #explosion at the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Hotel in Texas, USA, has been identified as 44 year-old migrant Sahil Omar,” reads one post on X, formerly Twitter. “Authorities have yet to find a motive.”
As of Tuesday, the post had received more than 4,900 likes and shares.
Other posts also suggested that the explosion was a terrorist attack. For example, another X post asks: “Is this the first Biden illegal to be a terrorist blowing up buildings in America?”
But no suspect had been identified in relation to the explosion as of Tuesday afternoon. Jimmy Pollozani, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department, told the AP that “no suspect is being sought as of this email.”
Rather, authorities are characterizing the blast as a natural gas explosion.
“We are working with officials to confirm the cause of the explosion,” the Fort Worth Fire Department wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday morning. “We have stated that it has the characteristics of a natural gas explosion and continue to state that until a confirmation of cause can be determined.”
The department wrote in an X post early Monday evening that the explosion was “likely caused” by a “gas leak.”
In its Facebook post, the department confirmed that “there have been NO comments or statements by the Fort Worth Fire Department or the Fort Worth Police Department” suggesting that “criminal activity or terrorism” was at play.
“There is NO THREAT to the public safety in the wake of yesterday’s incident,” it reads.
Social media users also falsely blamed a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, last month on a 44-year-old migrant named Sahil Omar. The actual suspect, who died in a shootout with law enforcement, was identified by police as Anthony Polito, a longtime business professor who had unsuccessfully applied for several jobs at various colleges and universities in Nevada.
The Fort Worth explosion blew doors and sections of wall into the road in front of the 20-story hotel, where rescuers found several people trapped in the basement, the AP has reported. The blast injured 21 people, including one critically. On Tuesday, the fire department said that no more victims had been found.
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
