A man who was supposed to be honored Monday for his heroic actions during last month’s El Paso shooting was kept back by the Secret Service in Washington after local authorities in Texas said his story was fake.
President Trump praised Earnest Christopher Grant, a 50-year-old Texas resident, who was supposed to be one of 13 people honored at the White House event. He did not attend the event and was not included in the list of honorees.
Even so, Mr. Trump still gave Mr. Grant’s mother his certificate of commendation for his alleged heroic actions.
“Chris grabbed — listen to this — soda bottles,” Trump recounted. “And anything else in front of him, and began hurling them at the gunman, distracting him from the other shoppers and causing the shooter to turn towards Chris and fire at him. Chris suffered two very serious gunshot wounds, but he is recovering well and we wish him the best.”
But authorities said the story — which Mr. Grant told to CNN’s Chris Cuomo — does not match surveillance video of the incident.
“CNN ran with it and didn’t bother to verify it. I just want to note that this isn’t something we did to shame the guy, it’s just that what he said is not truthful,” an El Paso Police representative said Wednesday. “We saw his actions and it’s not like he described. What Grant did amounted to an act of self preservation.”
The spokesman reportedly didn’t elaborate on which parts of the story weren’t true.
While the Secret Service would not identify who was detained with an active arrest warrant, a police spokeswoman confirmed that it was Mr. Grant, according to ABC News.
He was later released from custody, ABC News reported. Requests for comment from Mr. Grant have gone unanswered.
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