claim: Ret. Sgt. Gregory Hayes beat two Syrian refugees to death after they raped his daughter, and now faces life in prison.
origin: In April 2016, a claim about a man who supposedly beat two men to death with his bare hands began circulating on Facebook: While the image was wildly popular on Facebook, not one versionÂ of it included any information substantiating its claims. We were unable to locate any news stories or public records matching the details of the rumor, nor any recent records of a retiredÂ U.S. ArmyÂ sergeant namedÂ Gregory Hayes. A reverse image search didnâ€™t turn up any results for the photograph of the purported Sgt. Hayes, either. One commenterÂ claimed that the image was of a man named Paul Reed, whichÂ we were also unable to substantiate: < 1) This is a picture of a man named Paul Reed. (2) The only result for a â€˜Gregory Hayesâ€™ being charged with murder in the entire US is a black man from St. Louis who stabbed a University student. (3) There have been exactly ZERO rapes in the US by Syrians under section 209.(a). (4) Using the premise of a veteran to somehow validate your cause is shameful and ignorant. > In addition to there being no record of Hayesâ€™ existence (and a photograph that didnâ€™t suggest the individual depicted was a retired sergeant), the number of Syrian refugees present in the United States isÂ quite low. According to theÂ United States Department of State records, 2,456 total Syrian refugees entered the United States inÂ 2015 and 2016 (3.6 percent of a total of 67,485 refugees). On 21 April 2016 were contacted by an individual whoÂ provided a screenshot of a Facebook page ostensibly showing that the photograph of â€œSgt. Gregory Hayesâ€ depicts a man with an entirely different name whose picture was appropriated by the memeâ€™s makers (presumably without his permission): We found no information to substantiateÂ the claim that Sgt. Gregory Hayes existed, much less that he beat two Syrian refugees to death for sexually assaulting his teenaged daughter. No dates, locations, or other information has come to light about either purported crime, and no matching incidents or arrests were reported in any jurisdiction we could find.