Sniper Jeremy Elmore Saves Family of Six in Texas-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Retired Army Sniper Jeremy Elmore saved a family of six by shooting would-be intruders from his bedroom window while they tried to enter the neighboring home, saving a family of six.
The Truth:
A fake news website is behind false claims about Ex-Army Sniper Jeremy Elmore shooting intruders to a neighboring from his bedroom window.
The story appeared at The Seattle Tribune on January 9, 2017, under the headline, “Ex-Army Sniper Takes Out Neighbor’s Home Intruder from Bedroom Window.” The story, which has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media, begins:
Jeremy Elmore, a 42-year-old retired Army Sniper currently residing in El Paso, Texas, is being hailed a hero after he saved a neighborhood family from 3 violent home intruders late Tuesday evening.
Elmore, who retired from the Army at 41 after giving 21-years of service was spending the night home alone as his wife and 3 young children are visiting family members in Indiana.
According to Elmore, he wasn’t quite ready to go to sleep when he retired to his bedroom around 1:15 AM- so he decided to engage in one of his favorite activities – breaking down and cleaning one of his firearms. The firearm that Elmore decided to break down and clean was his M24 Sniper Riffle (officially referred to as the M24 Sniper Weapon System).
At approximately 1:50 AM – after cleaning and reassembling the rifle, Elmore rested it on the sill of his bedroom window to adjust its scope. While adjusting the scope it unintentionally landed on one of his neighbor across the street’s open windows; Elmore told police and reporters that he was amazed at what he saw happening inside. Elmore told local ABC affiliate reporter Karen Lodestone, “I honestly thought I was dreaming hallucinating at first – it took over a minute for the situation to fully register in my brain”.
As the story made it’s way around social media, many people read it without looking at where reports about the heroics of sniper Jeremy Elmore came from. But The Seattle Tribune clearly identifies itself as a “news and entertainment satire web publication” under its declaimer, adding, “All news articles contained within the Seattle Tribune are fictional and presumably satirical news.”
So, accounts of sniper Jeremy Elmore saving a family of six from would-be intruders didn’t come from a reputable source and shouldn’t be taken as fact.