Did Renee Good, the woman who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minnesota, lose custody of her two older children because her partner Rebecca Good abused them by putting cigarettes out on them? No, that's not true: No credible evidence shows that she lost custody or that her partner burned her children. Social media posts have circulated making…
Did a real former law enforcement officer, "Kramer Hammy" write a critique of the ICE shooting incident in Minneapolis in which Renee Good was killed? Yes, that's true: The person who wrote the essay is a former deputy sheriff. "Kramer Hammy" is a social media handle, not her legal name. Lead Stories communicated with the author through messenger, and independently…
Did an actual news outlet report that an oil executive said Donald Trump "smelled like rotten roast beef" and audibly farted multiple times during a White House meeting with oil industry leaders? No, that's not true: The viral message making those claims originated on a satirical X.com account. There were no actual news reports that any participant in the Jan.…
Did singer Beyoncé Knowles announce she would be covering the expenses of Renee Good's children until they were adults? No, that's not true: The viral video apparently showing that was labeled as AI generated by the TikTok account that posted it. Beyoncé's actual social media accounts and those of her charitable foundation have not made any mention of the Minneapolis…
Is this viral image a real photo of a woman in a pink shirt carrying black-and-white bags standing in front of three black SUVs marked 'ICE' while holding up a phone? No, that's not true: The image is a digital edit made to resemble a famous historical picture known as "Tank Man". That picture showed a man carrying shopping bags…
Did U.S. citizen Renee Good, shot and killed in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7, 2026, actually live elsewhere outside Minnesota? No, that's not true: Multiple credible media outlets described her as a resident of that city. The Minneapolis Mayor said that Good lived there on the day of her death. The claim was made…
Was there an Antifa sticker and another one claiming "transgender surgeries performed in this car" on the Honda Pilot Renee Good was driving when she was shot and killed on a Minneapolis street by an ICE agent? No, that's not true: The image of a cluster of car stickers is labeled as AI-generated. The TikTok account that first used the…
Did Secret Service Agent Larry Cockell document that Bill Clinton stopped to speak with a homeless Desert Storm veteran named Marcus Williams outside the Kennedy Center in 1997? No, that's not true: This sentimental story is fictional clickbait. The story's many details make it sound believable but they do not check out. There is no record of this 1997 interaction…
Does a viral still image actually show the moment an ICE agent fired at Minneapolis resident Renee Good? No, that's not true: The details of the scene don't match real eyewitness videos of the event. The image was first published by an account with a parody label, and that account later said the picture was created by AI. The claim…
Did Erika Kirk lose custody of her children, as indicated by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in an interview? No, that's not true: Rep. Luna said in a podcast interview that Kirk "lost her kids," but later said she "meant to say the kids lost their dad." There is no evidence to conclude that the widow of Charlie Kirk lost custody…
Did a group of "radical libertarian NRA members" face off with ICE agents and their vehicles in Oregon, daring them to move an inch toward them? No, that's not true: A viral message making that claim in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting of a woman by an ICE agent originated on a satirical X.com account. There were no actual…
Is a photograph of Elsa Thora, a blonde woman, aboard a ship during a military operation authentic? No, that's not true: This is not a real photo. Google's Gemini detected a SynthID watermark embedded in the image indicating that all or part of it was created or edited with Google AI. The image was posted on January 7, 2026, on…
Did a "Lucas Mamdani", brother to New York City's mayor, buy properties with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to financially benefit from new city policies on affordable housing? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find evidence to support the existence of any sibling of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The claim originated from a page with a satire label that was…
Was "Steve Grove" identified as the ICE Agent who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: The agent's name has not been publicly released by official sources, but the Minnesota Star Tribune has identified the involved ICE agent as Jonathan Ross. Some social media posts are not only using the wrong name, but AI-generated images spun from video…
Does the photo circulating on social media show Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis Jan. 7, 2025? No, that's not true: This is not a picture of Good, but another woman who attended Old Dominion University at the same time. Both women were awarded poetry prizes in 2020 and their photos appeared separately in…
Does this viral video clip show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying Renee Good had the right to drive away from ICE officers just before one of them shot and killed her on a Minneapolis street? No, that's not true: The clip is real, but was lifted from a June, 2025 appearance on "The Rubin Report" podcast, six months before Good…
Are photos of an unmasked ICE agent purportedly involved in the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis real? No, that's not true: The ICE agent seen in the images was not recorded without a mask before or after Good was fatally shot on January 7, 2026. The unmasked images were created by the Grok AI tool using screenshots of…
Did Keanu Reeves open an "Arch Animal Sanctuary" as claimed by several viral posts? No, that's not true: The image used in the story was generated using artificial intelligence according to the SynthID watermark in it. There were no actual news reports about such a sanctuary being opened. One image used in the viral story was stolen from a fact…
Did Barbra Streisand, British politician Nigel Farage and Kevin Costner each say "Our country would be safer without Somali immigrants -- starting with Ilhan Omar!"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories featuring those and other famous people were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were no news articles about such an event and the…
Do these viral videos show the U.S. seizing oil tankers linked to Venezuela on January 7, 2026? No, that's not true: Those clips are unrelated to the U.S. pursuit of the tankers "Bella-1" and "Sophia". The clips can be found in posts that predate the capture of the ships. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) on…
