"Capitol Rioter Tasered His Testicles To Death" Rumor
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Part of a series on January 6th, 2021, Storming of the United States Capitol. [View Related Entries]
Overview
"Capitol Rioter Tasered His Testicles To Death" Rumor refers to a hoax that Kevin Greeson, one of the four people who died during the 2021 Storming Of The United States Capitol, did so after accidentally shocking himself in the testicles with a taser while trying to steal a portrait of former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, leading to death by a heart attack. Though there are some outlets that have reported a man did accidentally taser himself and suffer a heart attack, the testicles portion of the rumor comes from a joke by Twitter user @ggooooddddoogg.
Background
At the 2021 Storming of the United States Capitol, five people died. One officer, Brian Sicknick died from medical emergencies sustained in the riot. The other four were part of the crowd that stormed the Capitol Building. One was Ashli Babbit, who died on the scene after being shot by a US Capitol Police officer. Benjamin Phillips, Kevin Greeson, and Rosanne Boyland died afterward from medical emergencies.[1] Revolt,[2] News1130,[3] and reporter Talia Jane[5] reported that one of the medical emergencies was self-inflicted by a man who accidentally struck himself with a taser, causing a heart attack. Kevin Greeson's family confirmed he died of a heart attack,[4] writing, "Kevin had a history of high blood pressure, and in the midst of the excitement, suffered a heart attack." They did not confirm if he had accidentally tased himself. Snopes[6] has also been unable to confirm if Kevin Greeson had tased himself accidentally, causing his death.
Developments
The rumor that Greeson tasered himself in the testicles while trying to steal a picture of Tip O'Neill was started by Twitter user @ggooooddddoogg,[7] who early in the morning on January 7th wrote, "i don’t think it’s funny at all that a maga guy accidentally tased himself in his own balls until he died while trying to steal a painting of thomas p. “tip” o neill from a hallway." The tweet gained over 500 retweets and 3,000 likes (shown below). @ggooooddddoogg confirmed his joke started the rumor in a DM with KnowYourMeme.
After @ggooooddddoogg's tweet, several people parroted the rumor across social media. Twitter user @karlhess[8] reposted the rumor without knowing of its origin on the afternoon of January 7th, gaining over 19,000 retweets and 193,000 likes (shown below, left). On January 8th, user @TrumpHotelMatt1[9] posted an image macro that repeated the rumor, gaining over 170 retweets and 470 likes (shown below, right). Similar image macros have appeared on Reddit[10] and Imgur.[11]
The spread of the rumor was aided by people making jokes about it. For example, user @propagabba[12] tweeted a You're Laughing? quote about the rumor, gaining over 12,000 retweets and 139,000 likes (shown below, left). User @tacobellaciao[13] made an image macro version of the joke, gaining over 50 likes (shown below, right).
Search Interest
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External References
[1] CNN – What we know about the 5 deaths in the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol
[2] Revolt – Man died at U.S. Capitol after accidentally tasering himself and having a heart attack
[3] News1130 – Advocates say white privilege was on full display during Capitol Hill violence
[4] AL.com – Alabama man 1 of 5 who died in wake of Washington, D.C. chaos
[5] Twitter – Talia Jane
[6] Snopes – Capitol Riot Deaths
[9] Twitter – trumphotelmatt1
[10] Reddit – And that’s why you don’t put a taser in your pants, kids.
[11] Imgur – Capitol rioter dies after tasing himself in balls
[12] Twitter – Propagabba
[13] Twitter – TacoBellaCiao
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