HuffPost Duped by Twitter Prankster Claiming He Witnessed Antonio Martin Shooting
Following another fatal shooting of a black teen by a police officer near Ferguson, MO, the Huffington Post published a version of events it said came from the second subject at the scene, a report the site later retracted when the source was revealed to be a Twitter prankster.
St. Louis police fatally shot a man at a gas station Tuesday night in Berkeley, MO, a town just west of Ferguson. The subject was identified at the scene as Antonio Martin, while a second suspect was believed to have fled. As Martin’s name was hashtagged on Twitter, one tweet caught some eyes:
I can't believe my best friend just died in front of me #AntonioMartin
— Jesús Christo (@DesJuanTheThug) December 24, 2014
Right in front of me #AntonioMartin
— Jesús Christo (@DesJuanTheThug) December 24, 2014
If you want it to, that sounds like the second subject at the scene. Jesus Christo quickly became the source for the Huffington Post story, which preceded the statement from the St. Louis County Police, in which Christo told a story portraying the officer as the aggressor.
Several other tweeps screencapped the original article:
Huff Post gets duped by Twitter user claiming to have witnessed loss of "best friend" #AntonioMartin pic.twitter.com/ZrCb56DmB0
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) December 24, 2014
Jesus Christo’s story has since been removed from HuffPost’s article:
And the author, associate editor Sebastian Murdock, has apologized:
I was misled and made a foolish error. Thank you all for pointing this out. I am correcting the story to reflect as much.
— Sebastian Murdock (@SebastianMurdoc) December 24, 2014
Jesus Christo then mocked HuffPost for running with the story:
Tell The Huffington Post to do a better job of finding credible sources.
— Jesús Christo (@DesJuanTheThug) December 24, 2014
As for Jesus Christo:
I pissed the entire country off
— Jesús Christo (@DesJuanTheThug) December 24, 2014
Yeah, great work, buddy.
[h/t Washington Post]
[Image via screengrab]
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