After winning the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs held a victory parade, but a shooting marred the event. Republican lawmakers and pundits moved quickly to absolve guns any of the blame for the shooting.
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett from Tennessee took it a step further, though. The Republican posted a picture of a man in handcuffs and wrote, "One of the Kansas City Chiefs Victory Parade shooters has been identified as an illegal alien."
The problem was that the man was neither a shooter or an illegal immigrant. The man, Denny Loudermill, says he was detained for moving too slow and was released without charges.
Burchett would later post on Twitter, "It has come to my attention that in one of my previous posts, one of the shooters was identified as an illegal alien. This was based on multiple, incorrect news reports stating that. I have removed the post."
Loudermill is going ahead with a lawsuit against the lawmaker. In the suit, his lawyers write:
"Defendant published that Plaintiff was an 'illegal alien' and a 'shooter' at an event in Kansas City, Missouri celebrating the Super Bowl victory of the Kansas City Chiefs. Plaintiff is not and never has been an illegal alien, having been born and raised in the United States of America. On February 14, 2024, Plaintiff was not the 'shooter' and was not in any way involved in the shooting."