The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Get PolitiFact in your inbox. * Weekly Email Newsletter * Daily Email Newsletter Your Email Address Sign Up ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on September 3, 2024 in a video posted on X: On June 7, 2011, Kamala Harris was involved in a San Francisco hit-and-run crash that injured a woman named Alicia Brown. ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"pants- fire\\"](\\" * Elections * Facebook Fact-checks * X posts ![\\"Vice](\\" Vice President Kamala Harris speaks Aug. 29, 2024, at a campaign rally in Savannah, Ga. (AP) ![\\"Madison](\\" By Madison Czopek September 5, 2024 ![\\"Loreben](\\" By Loreben Tuquero September 5, 2024 # No proof Kamala Harris injured a person in 2011 car crash. Flawed story comes from unreputable site #### If Your Time is short * A video in which a woman described being injured by Kamala Harris in a 2011 hit-and-run crash originated on a website identifying itself as \"KBSF San Francisco News.\" The website was unresponsive by midday Sept. 4. * KBSF’s website URL identified it as a television channel. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates television communications and maintains a register of TV stations, has no record of KBSF. The website’s domain name was created Aug. 20. * The San Francisco Police Department found no incident reports or emergency calls matching the described crash. Multiple images shared in the video were traced to unrelated incidents, including a car crash in Guam and images published in medical research journals. See the sources for this fact-check On Sept. 2, a website styled to look like a news organization known as \"KBSF San Francisco News\" posted a story about a hit-and-run crash cover-up implicating Vice President Kamala Harris. Within two days, the baseless claims had spread widely on X. In video clips shared Sept. 4 on X, a woman identified as \"Alicia Brown\" claimed Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, drove a car that struck and injured her June 7, 2011. \"Well it happened on the corner of Post Street and Jones Street,\" the woman recounted. \"Me and my mom were walking home from the movie theater after watching ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’\" She said a car driving the wrong way down a one-way street struck her as she crossed the road. She was thrown into the road, where she observed the woman who hit her looking back at her before driving away from the scene. \"Of course, back then, I didn’t know that it was Kamala Harris, California attorney general,\" the woman said. Harris was in her first year as attorney general in 2011. A voice-over said the woman injured her pelvis, ribs and spine in the crash and underwent 11 surgeries but never regained her ability to walk. The day after the incident, Brown said two men talked with her mom at the hospital. \"When my mom came back to me I asked, ‘Who are those people?’ She said that the woman who hit me was Kamala Harris, a very powerful woman and those men were her people,\" the woman said. \"She was told that if this story gets out we would be in very big trouble, and if she loves me, she shouldn’t report this or look for any justice.\" The claim emerged from a blog post on a website identifying itself as \"KBSF San Francisco News.\" That website was unresponsive by midday Sept. 4, but the source code on an archived version of the story showed that the video and the story were posted around 6 a.m. Sept. 2. By around 11 a.m. Sept. 3, the narrative was being amplified by a member of a pro-Donald Trump \"meme\" account network and paid subscribers on X. ![](\\" (Screenshot from archived KBSF-tv.com website) A woman and news station with no history, a crash with no documentation KBSF is not a reputable San Francisco news outlet. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates television communications and maintains a register of TV stations, has no record of KBSF. The domain name was created Aug. 20. The video identified the woman as \"Alicia Brown,\" but the KBSF story that accompanied it also spelled Brown’s name \"Alisha Brown,\" so we checked that, too. We found no WhitePages.com records for a person living in San Francisco for either name. Google searches before Sept. 1 did not show an \"Alicia Brown\" or \"Alisha Brown\" in California who matched the woman in the video. The intersection of Post and Jones streets — where Brown said the purported incident occurred — exists. Google Maps confirmed the location was within walking distance of a movie theater in 2011. San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Allison Maxie said the agency found no calls for service or other reports involving a hit-and-run or car crash in the vicinity of the intersection of Post and Jones streets on or around this date in 2011. \"Our search for such an incident turned up with negative results,\" Maxie said. \"We believe there is no merit to this incident.\" Because the woman in the video claimed her mother had been intimidated into silence, our search went beyond police records. We used Google and Nexis to search and found: #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 13, 2024 in an Instagram post Videos of media talking about Tim Walz as a \"happy warrior\" are proof of government propaganda legalized by Barack Obama. ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • August 15, 2024 * No results in Nexis news archives for an \"Alicia Brown\" or \"Alisha Brown\" involved in a 2011 hit-and-run car crash in California. * Four results when searching \"Kamala\" with the phrase hit-and-run in 2011, but none of those reports said Harris had been driving. Each mention was included in a news story about California crime statistics or multitopic stories that, in a separate section, identified Harris as California’s attorney general. * No Google results for hit-and-run crashes near the intersection in June 2011. The woman in the video claimed that she decided to go public with her story after her mother died. But we found no recent obituaries naming an Alicia Brown or Alisha Brown as a surviving daughter. Video contains image of a 2018 Guam crash, other unrelated scenes The video includes generic images that are linked to other incidents or could have been pulled off the internet and used as generic stock photos. For example, about one minute into the full video, KBSF showed a picture of a car with a broken mirror and windshield. But that photo was from a 2018 crash in Guam involving a Toyota Yaris that struck a pedestrian, Pacific Daily News reported. ![](\\" (Screenshot from video on X) The video also showed two X-ray images about three minutes in. Using Bing reverse-image searches, we found that one, showing multiple rib fractures, was published in an October 2010 article in BMC Gastroenterology about Cronkhite- Canada syndrome causing rib fractures. The other shows a \"type C pelvic ring injury in a 12-year-old girl,\" according to a 2017 article in the Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics. No evidence that video is AI-generated, experts say Digital forensics experts told PolitiFact that based on their analysis, the clips of \"Alicia Brown\" don’t appear to be generated by artificial intelligence. \"I think most likely this is a good old fashioned (and not particularly well done or convincing) cheap fake where the interview is simply staged,\" said Hany Farid, University of California, Berkeley, professor specializing in digital forensics and misinformation. Siwei Lyu, a computer science and engineering professor at the University at Buffalo, performed an algorithmic and visual analysis of the video and \"cannot confirm the video itself was created with generative AI.\" AI models have difficulty producing sighing and slurring sounds that he found in the audio. Features like inconsistent teeth in the mouth area, which are usually markers for AI-generated content, are also absent, he said. Meme accounts, paid X subscribers circulated false claim On X, the earliest mention of the claim that we found seemed to be a post from an X user named Liz Churchill. Churchill describes herself as a \"conspiracy theorist\" in her bio and is also a paid X subscriber, meaning her posts are promoted by the site’s algorithm. The original post is now unavailable, but a cached copy can be found here. The cached version’s time stamp is 3 p.m., but we found posts that reshared the now-deleted post before 11 a.m. ET. The X post linked to the KBSF-TV article and said, \"Kamala Harris was involved in a ‘hit and run’ accident in 2011 where she hit a 13-year old.\" ![](\\" (Screenshot from X) Minutes later, a paid X account called \"miguelifornia\" shared the article link and a screenshot of the headline, then made another post including the video. The second post drew more than 700,000 views. In the next two hours, the video was shared by a paid X subscriber called \"I Meme Therefore I Am,\" gaining 11,000 reposts and more than 1.8 million views. After the Baltimore bridge collapse in March, that account spread an anti-Ukraine narrative. Miguelifornia is part of a network of \"meme\" accounts supported by the \"Dilley Meme Team,\" also known as \"Trump’s Online War Machine,\" which previously circulated a deepfake video of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropping out of the presidential race. Former President Donald Trump, Harris’ rival for the presidency, has been found to have interacted with the group, whether by resharing their content or suggesting edits to one of the videos they produced. Our ruling A viral video claimed that Harris was involved in a June 7, 2011, hit-and-run crash in San Francisco that injured a woman named Alicia Brown. We found no evidence that any of this is real. The story emerged from a website that claimed to share news from a TV channel that does not exist. We couldn’t find a person matching the supposed crash victim’s identity. The San Francisco Police Department searched its records and found no incident reports or emergency calls matching the described crash. Multiple images shared in the video were traced to unrelated incidents including a car crash in Guam and images published in medical research journals. We found no evidence to substantiate this hit-and-run claim. We rate it Pants on Fire! PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources \"Miguelifornia\" X post, Sept. 3, 2024 \"Miguelifornia\" X post, Sept. 3, 2024 \"I Meme Therefore I Am\" X post, Sept. 3, 2024 Liz Churchill’s X post, cached Sept. 3, 2024 Reeve Swainston, Esq. X post, Sept. 3, 2024 KBSF San Francisco News, Kamala Harris hit a 13-year-old girl with a car and left the crime scene, Sept. 2, 2024 Email exchange with Siwei Lyu, computer science and engineering professor at the University at Buffalo, Sept. 4, 2024 Email exchange with Hany Farid, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Sept. 4, 2024 Email exchange with Manjeet Rege, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas, Sept. 4, 2024 Email exchange with Dilrukshi Gamage, a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo School of Computing in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet Society at Harvard University, Sept. 4, 2024 Email exchange with Paulina Henderson, public information officer at the San Francisco Police Department, Sept. 4, 2024 Email exchange with Allison Maxie, media relations for the San Francisco Police Department, Sept. 4, 2024 Cinema Treasures, CGV Cinemas San Francisco 1000 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109, accessed Sept. 4, 2024 BBC, The pro-Trump ‘meme team’ behind video referencing ‘Reich’, May 23, 2024 The New York Times, Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign, Dec. 13, 2023 Liz Churchill’s X profile, archived Sept. 4, 2024 PolitiFact, How paid X accounts blamed Israel, Ukraine for the Baltimore bridge collapse, April 3, 2024 PolitiFact, How Elon Musk ditched Twitter\'s safeguards and primed X to spread misinformation, Oct. 23, 2023 PolitiFact, How a deepfake video of Ron DeSantis dropping out went viral, Sept. 7, 2023 9:57 a.m. X post, March 26, 2024 Dilley Meme Team, \"About\" page, accessed Sept. 4, 2024 Pacific Daily News, Pedestrian in Mangilao auto-pedestrian crash dies, Jan. 18, 2018 The Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics, Paediatric pelvic fractures: how do they differ from Adults? February 2017 BMC Gastroenterology, Cronkhite-Canada syndrome associated with rib fractures: A case report, October 2010 ViewDNS.info, WHOIS information for kbsf-tv.com, accessed Sept. 4, 2024 Federal Communications Commission, What We Do, accessed Sept. 4, 2024 Federal Communications Commission, Search Entities & File Names, accessed Sept. 4, 2024 Federal Communications Commission, TV Query Results, accessed Sept. 4, 2024 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Madison Czopek ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on September 3, 2024 in a video posted on X: On June 7, 2011, Kamala Harris was involved in a San Francisco hit-and-run crash that injured a woman named Alicia Brown. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • September 5, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on August 29, 2024 in a post on Instagram: “BREAKING: Illegal Aliens in San Diego, California, tried to hijack 2 school buses filled with children.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 25, 2024 in a Facebook post: “There’s no such thing as menopause.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 30, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 24, 2024 in an Instagram post: World Economic Forum “document confirms 6 billion humans will die in 2025.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Bob Casey stated on August 22, 2024 in a speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention: “Prices are up because these corporations are scheming to drive them up.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 28, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 16, 2024 in a post on X: “Kamala Harris wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • August 22, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 4, 2024 in an Instagram post: “The NFL will now use facial recognition at every stadium to verify the identity of everyone at the game.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • August 16, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 12, 2024 in a post on Facebook: Dr. Leo Ferreira, a cancer researcher shown in a video clip, was on the plane that crashed in Brazil on Aug. 9. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • August 15, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Jesse Watters stated on August 6, 2024 in a segment on \"Jesse Watters Primetime\": Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “forced schools to stock tampons in boys’ bathrooms.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 13, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 11, 2024 in a post on Truth Social: Photo of Kamala Harris’ Aug. 7 rally near Detroit was AI-generated and “there was nobody there.” Attendees pictured “didn’t exist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 27, 2024 in a post on X: Video shows that “JD Vance endorses Project 2025.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • July 31, 2024 ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on July 22, 2024 in a post on X: The death of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, six days after the Trump rally shooting was linked to her “oversight of the Secret Service.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • July 24, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 21, 2024 in a post on Instagram: “The state of Washington has already sent out their ballots” for the 2024 presidential election. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • July 23, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 14, 2024 in an Instagram post: A Secret Service agent named Jonathan Willis said he “had the assassin in his sights for 3 minutes, but he was told not to engage by the head of the (Secret Service) unit.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • July 15, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Joe Biden stated on July 9, 2024 in a speech in Washington D.C.: In 2020, “only nine NATO allies were spending 2%” of their GDP on defense. “This year, 23 will spend at least 2%.” ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • July 12, 2024 ### No proof Kamala Harris injured a person in 2011 car crash. Flawed story comes from unreputable site * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 3, 2024 in a video posted on X: On June 7, 2011, Kamala Harris was involved in a San Francisco hit-and-run crash that injured a woman named Alicia Brown. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • September 5, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 2, 2024 in a Threads post: Photo shows Vice President Kamala Harris “in the 90s.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a campaign event in Glendale, Ariz.: “There’s been a 43% increase in violent crimes since I left office.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 2, 2024 in an Instagram reel: NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles endorsed Kamala Harris for president. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on August 29, 2024 in a post on Instagram: “BREAKING: Illegal Aliens in San Diego, California, tried to hijack 2 school buses filled with children.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 1, 2024 in a Threads post: “Melania Trump just filed for divorce MINUTES ago in Palm Beach.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Loreben Tuquero • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 29, 2024 in a post: Vice President Kamala Harris was fired from McDonald’s for stealing. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Sara Swann • September 4, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 2, 2024 in a photo: Image claims Tiger Woods said “Kamala\'s fake black accent is embarrassing and extremely offensive.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • September 4, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. 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On June 7 2011 Kamala Harris was involved in a San Francisco hitandrun crash that injured a woman named Alicia Brown