MURDER OF SETH RICH

MURDER OF SETH RICH

Seth Conrad Rich (January 3, 1989 – July 10, 2016) was an American employee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who was fatally shot in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[1][2][3] As of May 2017 the shooting was still under investigation by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.[4]

On Sunday, 10 July 2016, Rich was shot about a block from his apartment in the Bloomingdale neighborhood in Washington, DC.[3]

Earlier that night, he was in Columbia Heights, at a sports pub, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) from his apartment. He left the bar between 1:30 and 1:45 am.[4] Police were alerted to gunfire at 4:20 am by an automated gunfire locator.[5] Police officers found Rich with multiple gunshot wounds.[6] He was in a conscious and breathing state.[6] He was transported to a nearby hospital where he later died.[7] Police have said he died from two shots in the back in what may have been an attempted robbery, noting that the neighborhood had been recently plagued by robberies.[3]

According to Rich's mother:

The murder spawned several right-wing conspiracy theories, including the claim that Rich had been involved with the leaked DNC emails in 2016, which runs contrary to the U.S. intelligence's conclusion the leaked DNC emails were part of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[5][6][7] Law enforcement[5][6] as well as fact-checking websites like PolitiFact.com,[6][8] Snopes.com,[9] and FactCheck.org stated that these theories were false and unfounded.[5] The New York Times,[10] Los Angeles Times,[11] and The Washington Post called the fabrications fake news and falsehoods.[12]

Rich's parents condemned the conspiracy theorists and said that these individuals were exploiting their son's death for political gain, and their spokesperson called the conspiracy theorists "disgusting sociopaths".[13][14][15] They requested a retraction and apology from Fox News after the network promoted the conspiracy theory,[16] and sent a cease and desist letter to the investigator Fox News used.[6][15][16] The investigator stated that he had no evidence to back up the claims which Fox News attributed to him.[5][6][17] Fox News issued a retraction, but did not apologize or publicly explain what went wrong.[18]