Alex just said that he decided the shooting really happened five years after it happened. That would be in December 2017. Alex was interviewed on Megan Kelly's show, which also featured the Neil Hesslin interview in June 2017. The actions he took trying to attack Heslin's appearance in that interview are the grounds for bringing this suit against him. So by his own admission, at the time he was on Megan Kelly, he thought the shooting didn't happen and that these people were all fake.