Disinformation in Minneapolis Shooting Points at People Who Were Not Involved

Within hours of a federal officer shooting and killing a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman on Wednesday, some social media users identified two separate and unrelated people as the shooter, a move that for hours sent threats and vitriol their way.

Online posts claiming that “Steve Grove from Minneapolis” was the shooter began circulating Wednesday afternoon and quickly caught the attention of the publisher and chief executive of The Minnesota Star Tribune, whose name is Steve Grove. The paper he runs was in the throes of covering the news roiling the state, and the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had shot the woman was not yet public.

At first Mr. Grove said he was worried that it was a “horrible coincidence” — did he share a name with the shooter? But as time went on, he wrote in a Substack post and later told The Times, he realized something far more troubling was happening.

The posts “started piling up, and they got more and more viral,” Mr. Grove said. “It was clear this was like a vigilante hunt.”

About 600 miles to the south, in Springfield, Mo., a gun-shop owner named Steven Grove was also caught up in the fray. He said he received several Facebook messages Wednesday evening calling him the shooter, and on Thursday, his business received dozens of phone calls, many accusing him of murder. “It was surreal,” he said. Mr. Grove, a military veteran, said he has never been to Minnesota.

On Wednesday, an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in the driver’s seat of her car on a neighborhood street in Minneapolis. President Trump and other federal officials said the agent, identified Thursday as Jonathan Ross, was acting in self-defense. Others see it differently and state and local leaders are pressing for a state-run investigation.