MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CRIME & JUSTICE

QAnon supporters claim Boulder mass shooting was a false flag 'like Atlanta': 'Nobody actually died'

'Nobody actually died... was this false flag to try and take your guns or scare the s**t out of you?'

QAnon has now added a new theory to its arsenal. Almost immediately after the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, popular and influential QAnon proponents began pushing claims that the attack was a "false flag" and no one had actually died.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was identified by authorities as the suspect who opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store, killing ten people, including a Boulder police officer. The gruesome incident took place around 2.30 pm on Monday, March 22.

READ MORE

Who is Jim Watkins? 'QAnon' leader who owns 8chan used to run pornographic websites for money

QAnon followers say Trump’s March 4 ‘inauguration’ plan was false flag trick by Antifa, Internet says 'grow up'

As per news reports, supporters of QAnon declared that the media reports and statements from the police were all false and that there is no way yet another mass shooting could have occurred in the country. The Boulder mass shooting came just about a week after a shooting spree in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 16, 2021, where eight people were killed, six of whom were Asian women, and one other person was wounded. 

"No question Boulder, Co incident today was a false flag. The only question is by which side?," one QAnon profile, who has more than 260,000 subscribers on Telegram, wrote. "False flag means it's fake. Nobody actually died. Was this false flag to try and take your guns or scare the s**t out of you?"

An account with more than 58,000 Telegram followers reportedly said, "This Boulder situation reeks of false flag. Anons will pick this apart in a matter of hours if it is." Another Telegram user in the group wrote: "Nobody died. I was there for an actual shooting. This was 100% fake fake."

As per reports, on social networking site Gab, one influential QAnon advocate with more than 79,000 followers claimed the mass shooting was a "false flag" to help push gun control legislation. Other QAnon supporters reportedly claimed that bystanders at the scene of the Boulder were "actors" because they apparently weren't reacting in the right way to a mass shooting.

Conspiracy theorists, of course, have already spread false claims about the shooting spree in Atlanta. And in the same manner. Vice News reported that within hours of the Atlanta massage-parlor massacres, QAnon followers spun wild conspiracies claiming the attack was the work of the CIA, the Biden administration, or China — a kind of a “false flag” operation to crack down on gun control and inflame racial tension.

The report said a user on Parler, another social media site known for being a hub of far-right extremists, posted: "Biden's CIA-managed false flag attacks designed to provide a justification to confiscate guns and demonize patriots has begun."

“Do you see the play? Do you see how false flags work?” the user wrote on Telegram, quoting a Hilary Clinton tweet. “Cabal uses false flags to change the narrative and to keep Americans divided by race, ethnicity, gender, politics, etc. these people are monsters.”

Rita Katz, the director of Site Intelligence Group, a non-governmental organization that tracks the online activity of extremist groups, wrote about this phenomenon. She said, “Every tragedy is a reason for far-right/conspiracy adherents to swarm like vultures, calling the Atlanta shootings a false flag to stoke anti-white sentiments, or going with the hallmark QAnon narrative of human trafficking based on stereotypes of massage parlors as brothels.”