Man Falsely Linked To Neo-Nazi Shooting Drops Lawsuit Against Fox News

A Texas man dropped a lawsuit against Fox News on Thursday after previously alleging that the right-wing media company had wrongly identified him as a neo-Nazi mass shooter.

According to an attorney for Mauricio Garcia, 36, Fox News did not “ignore basic journalistic precautions” when covering the May 6, 2023, mass shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas.

“I acknowledge the lawsuit should never have been filed against Fox News, and we are compensating Fox News for its trouble in defending against this claim,” Garcia’s attorney Mark Bankston said in a statement. “In turn, Fox News is [forgoing] pursuing sanctions. Contrary to my prior public statements, Fox News did not ignore basic journalistic precautions and did have proper institutional guardrails in place with respect to its coverage of the Allen, TX shooting.”

Garcia alleged in an April lawsuit that Fox News and other right-wing media platforms had circulated his photo in the wake of the shooting, falsely identifying him as the mass shooter. He and the shooter share both first and last names.

A spokesperson for Fox News declined to comment, instead referring to the company’s May motion-to-dismiss filing that maintains that Garcia’s image was never published on its platform.

“The defamation claim against FNN (Fox News Network) in this case is made up and should never have been brought,” Fox News said in its motion to dismiss. “Plaintiff has sued Defendant FNN over an alleged ‘publication’ of his image by FNN that did not happen and does not exist.”

However, Garcia is still suing Spanish-language network Univision, right-wing cable channel Newsmax and far-right podcaster Steven Crowder, as well as Owen Shroyer, a host on the conspiracy platform Infowars.

Garcia’s