The City of Charlotte issued a pretty substantial correction Wednesday night to a report that a person had died following a shooting at a protest march. The police chief had confirmed that the shooting victim had died, but reports of his death were premature.
CORRECTION UPDATE: Civilian who suffered gunshot wound during protests is on life support, critical condition. Not deceased.
— City of Charlotte (@CLTgov) September 22, 2016
In light of that information, councilwoman at-large Julie Eiselt tweeted a reminder that social media reports weren’t to be trusted, and that citizens should refer to the official @CLTgov Twitter feed for the facts.
https://twitter.com/JulieEiselt/status/778788629787189248
This @CLTgov?
ALERT: Fatal shot uptown was civilian on civilian. @CMPD did not fire shot.
— City of Charlotte (@CLTgov) September 22, 2016
It’s unclear which was most ironic: that Eiselt issued that warning after retweeting four media accounts about Wednesday night’s protests, including two indicating that the shooting was fatal; that the official just-the-facts city account had reported that the citizen had died; or that she added the #PeacefulProtest hashtag to the tweet.
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