Anonymous 4chan post isn’t firsthand Secret Service account of Trump rally shooting

All eyes are on the U.S. Secret Service following the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who is running for reelection in 2024. 

As details emerge, many have questioned how a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle could access a roof about 400 feet from where Trump was speaking at a campaign rally. 

The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, as the suspect who shot and killed one person, injured former President Donald Trump and injured two others at Trump’s event in Butler, Pennsylvania. After Crooks opened fire, he was shot and killed by Secret Service members who have not been identified.

Social media posts are sharing what they claim is a first-person account of one Secret Service sniper who says he was told to withhold his fire. 

"Explosive revelation: Jonathan Willis, the officer in this photo from Trump’s rally, claims he had the shooter in his sights for 3 minutes but was ordered not to take the shot by top Secret Service brass," one July 14 Instagram post read. "Massive if true, but take comments on the internet with a grain of salt." 

Another post shared the same image and sentiment: "Officer who took out the shooter had him in his sights for 3 whole min!" read a July 14 Facebook post.

We saw the same claims circulating on X and TikTok. 

This post and several others were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Instagram)

We found no reputable news sources or law enforcement authorities who said that a Secret Service member named Jonathan Willis exists or helped stop the campaign rally attack. 

We traced the social media claims to 4chan, an anonymous online messaging board. At around 2 a.m. July 14, someone with the user ID "z9qiQ4hq" claimed on the site to be "Jonathan Willis," the officer "in the famous photo of the two snipers on the roof at Trump’s rally. I came here to inform the public that I had the assassin in my sights for at least 3 minutes, but the head of the secret service refused to give the order to take out the perp. 100% the top brass prevented me from killing the assassin before he took the shots at president Trump." 

That was the first of four posts linked to the user ID, all made July 14.

"I didn’t follow the orders though, as soon as the shooter opened on Trump I returned fire despite strict orders to not engage," the 4chan user wrote. "After I killed the shooter I was arrested, questioned by the FBI, and just released an hour ago. Already lost my job for not following orders, but I’m glad I took the shots anyway." 

We contacted the FBI and local law enforcement to ask if a "Jonathan Willis" was questioned by the FBI or fired from a law enforcement job, but the FBI  did not respond to that question. 

Nathan Herring, a Secret Service spokesperson, said the "Jonathan Willis" claim was "categorically false."

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"There is no U.S. Secret Service employee by that name," Herring said. He also said claims that a Secret Service sniper was fired for shooting Crooks were incorrect.

The 4chan post included a photo of two snipers on a roof, one wearing a vest with the word "police" visible on the back. 

The photo appears to be an Associated Press image taken at the rally.

We contacted The Associated Press to see if it had more information about the identities of the men in the photo and received no reply. Zooming in on the photo shows that the vest of the sniper in the foreground says "United States Secret Service."

An Instagram post claimed that a Secret Service sniper named Jonathan Willis said he "had the assassin in his sights for 3 minutes, but he was told not to engage by the head of the (Secret Service) unit."

We traced this social media claim to posts on 4chan, an anonymous online messaging board. The user ID linked to the 4chan posts only appeared four times, all on July 14. 

A Secret Service spokesperson said that claim was "categorically false," adding that the Secret Service does not employ anyone by the name "Jonathan Willis." We found no news reports or other indications using Google or Nexis that the Secret Service employs anyone by that name.

We rate the claim that someone named "Jonathan Willis" was told by Secret Service higher-ups not to engage the Trump rally shooter False. 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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