The Killing of an Infowars Reporter Was Likely a Random Attack, Police Say

U.S.|The Killing of an Infowars Reporter Was Likely a Random Attack, Police Say

The death this week of an Infowars reporter in Austin has kicked off a slew of conspiracy theories about the killing itself. But the police said on Wednesday they believed that the reporter, Jamie White, was the victim of a random attack.

In a matter-of-fact update that did not address the conspiracy theories swirling in right-wing media, Austin police said that Mr. White, 36, was trying to thwart his vehicle from being stolen outside his apartment complex on Sunday night when someone shot him and fled. Mr. White later died at the hospital.

When asked about the conspiracy theories, Jason Jones, the Police Department’s lead homicide investigator on the case replied, “We will follow the leads that develop in this case.”

That has not stopped Infowars’ founder, Alex Jones, from doing what he has long done: spread misinformation. Nearly three years after a jury found him liable for almost $1 billion in damages for saying that the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax, the right-wing provocateur took to the air with speculation about Mr. White’s death.

The killing “could’ve been a hit,” Mr. Jones said on Tuesday in a YouTube interview with the conservative commentator Benny Johnson. He added: “What are the chances in a town of over two million people that an Infowars lead reporter gets butchered?”

Mr. Jones also claimed that Mr. White and Elon Musk were both on a hit list that originated in Ukraine and has asked the Justice Department to get involved. Before his death, Mr. White himself posted on social media last June that he was on a “Ukrainian ‘Enemies List,’” and claimed that it was tied to the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Central Intelligence Agency and the liberal financier George Soros.