Police ID California native as cop shooter after GOP gov candidate blamed Venezuelan gangs

Police in Colorado debunked a right-wing conspiracy theory promoted by a failed Republican candidate for governor involving the shooting of a law enforcement officer.

According to Denver local news anchor Kyle Clark, state police said a U.S. citizen born in California "with a long rap sheet" in Colorado was accused of shooting a trooper Saturday.

The anonymous far-right account Do Better Denver and GOP gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl claimed the shooter was a Venezuelan gang member and that Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) was "covering it up," Clark wrote on X.

The Do Better Denver account claimed they "identified the US36 CSP shooting suspect as a TdA member" — meaning a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — "via fingerprints through INS (immigration & naturalization service)" but that Gov. Jared Polis "ordered Col. Packard, the head of CSP, to not release this information to the public because it might 'cause undue panic.'"

ALSO READ: How the press corps is Trump’s assisted living program

Among the signs the claim was dubious: the supposed migrant was identified by the INS, a federal agency that has not existed for more than two decades.

Ganahl ran against Polis in 2022 and has promoted far-right hoaxes in the past, including a viral false claim that schools around the country provided litter boxes to children who identified as cats. No school has been found to have done this. The one verified instance of a school procuring cat litter in Colorado was for emergency buckets children could use to relieve themselves in classrooms in case of a school shooting lockdown.

Misinformation about Tren de Aragua activity in Colorado has become widespread in recent weeks amid a rumor promoted by former President Donald Trump that the Venezuelan gang took over an apartment complex in Aurora. Police and residents have come forward to debunk the claim, with some residents alleging their property manager may have started the rumor in response to outrage from tenants about unsafe living conditions.