An internet hoax has taken the internet by storm, blaming the wrong person for the death of a civilian.
It happened on Tuesday evening in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The victim, Alton Sterling, was killed near a food mart after enduring a struggle with police officers. A 911 call informed police that Sterling was armed with a gun and had held a bystander by gunpoint.
The officers on scene, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, tasered Sterling, then shot and killed him. The officers justified the shooting saying that deadly force was necessary since Sterling was armed.
The internet blew up with uproar over the man’s death, and internet trolls were soon to follow. A truck driver named Robert Kinnison from Arizona had his photographs plastered all over Twitter, accusing the trucker of the shooting of Sterling.
According to Vovativ, a Twitter user named @187RUthless (Jamaal Williams) posted the tweet, naming Kinnison as one of the cops responsible for the shooting.
@187RUthless’ tweet was shared thousands of times, and the innocent Kinnison was bombarded with countless tweets, hate mail and death threats accusing him of being a racist murderer.
But not only is Kinnison not a cop, he doesn’t even live in Baton Rouge where the shooting happened. The original tweet that went viral has since been deleted.
Kinnison spoke out about the incident.
“Something major has went on today on Twitter and Instagram…I’m getting majorly trolled and I’m getting sick of it. I’m getting lots of death threats.”
He blamed Twitter user @187RUthless for the trolling.
“He’s done this to me before. A couple of mass shootings that happen he says that I was the mass-shooter. But nothing hasn’t been anything compared to this level 16,000 re-tweets and over 9,000 likes. I mean this is crazy.”
Since the incident, Kinnison has been trying to clear his name online. He hopes that by sharing his side of the story, the uproar will eventually die down.
