Fake News Story: Man ‘Beaten to Death’ Outside Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Restaurant

Introduction

On the floor of the House of Representatives, Lauren Boebert spoke in opposition to a bill expanding background checks for gun buyers. She described a personal account where a man was allegedly “beaten to death” outside her restaurant which prompted her to carry a fire arm for self defense at all times. Boebert makes her point clear, that women have the right and the need to carry a weapon for self defense considering their increased risk of assault. However, after considering the accounts of the “man beaten to death” outside of her restaurant, it is clear that her testimony was overexaggerated and dramatized to convey her point that the second amendment should remain as it is.

Research

After researching Rep. Boebert’s remark, it turns out she used the same story many different times including during her 2020 Congressional Race, and even all the way back to 2014 in an interview given to The Daily Sentinel. Her story goes unchanged on its main idea: a man was killed outsider her restaurant without a weapon after she opened her restaurant, “Shooter’s Grill.” After her reference to it during the hearing on the representative floor, many media outlets however were quick to identify the discrepancies in Boebert’s story calling it names such as “debunked,” or “bogus.” From an article published by the Colorado Sun, the Rifle Police Department stated that they had no record of a murder outside of the representative’s restaurant. A man did die a block away from her restaurant, however from an autopsy, it was determined that the man died from a drug overdose on methamphetamine.

The Truth

After an investigation revolving around the facts about the issue, the fact check source “Snopes” discovered the details of the incident in full detail. Boebert was right on one thing, a man did die, however not in the way she described and not as close to her restaurant as she made it out to be. From the investigation, Snopes received a report from the Rifle police in Colorado about one homicide investigation where a man by the name Anthony Royal Green was found on the ground on Railroad Avenue in Rifle. The location is not immediately near Boebert’s restaurant however it is a relatively close distance.

Upon further investigation, witness and police reports describe Green as having injuries to his face, no discernible pulse and was not breathing. One witness even said that he helped Green up to his feet after he was “jumped” but Green just fell back to the ground. The responding officer also reported that he noticed a pipe which Green may have used to smoke meth. The declaration of the incident as a homicide was proven incorrect after a full autopsy found Green’s death to be accidental and a result of an overdose on methamphetamine.

Conclusion

Although Boebert twisted the story to meet her political agenda, it is important to note that the incident does still provide support to her first claim; that women need some sort of self defense and by limiting the second amendment, legislatures may be taking that away. Regardless, there are a number of more truthful ways to convey a point rather than twisting a story to the point of it being almost completely false. With access to police reports and even postmortem examination reports, it is easy to search the internet for the truth regarding a situation. Fake news is especially easy to refute considering the amount of resources one has available to them on the internet.