Fact Check

Was Sasha Obama Murdered in a Drive-By Shooting?

A hoax news article reported that the daughter of former president Barack Obama had been killed.

Published Aug. 10, 2017

 (Wikimedia Commons)
Image Via Wikimedia Commons
Claim:
Sasha Obama was killed in a drive-by shooting in July 2017.

In July 2017, a particularly tasteless fake news story appeared on social media, originally published by a web site called NewsBibleReport.com, with the claim that one of former president Barack Obama's daughters had been killed:  

Breaking news that hit the United states in this Wednesday evening,Barack Obama’s daughter was murdered in a drive-by shootout near her school.

Sasha Obama,the daughter of Barack Obama this evening was murdered by organised drive-by shootout.

NewsBibleReport.com does not carry a readily available disclaimer labeling its content as satire, nor does it make any attempt at humor (none that we recognized anyway) or hint to the reader in any other way that this article is a piece of complete fiction. However, there is no truth to this report.

In the weeks following her "death," Sasha celebrated her father's birthday in Martha's Vineyard, and attended the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. If anything happened to her or to any other high-profile figure, we can all but guarantee that the story would not be broken by NewsBibleReport.com.

Sources

Madison, Ira.   "The Cruel Social-Media Shaming of Malia and Sasha Obama."     Daily Beast.   8 August 2017.

Williams, Janice.   "Barack Obama is Enjoying his First Birthday Out of the White House in Martha's Vineyard."       Newsweek.    4 August 2017.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.