A recent viral photo that claimed to show the injuries suffered by Darren Wilson, the police officer who sparked riots across the U.S. when he fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Miss., on Aug. 9, has been exposed to be a hoax by Friday's Huffington Post report.
Though Ferguson police have said that Wilson's face was injured in an altercation with Brown moments before the shooting, circumstances leading up to the 18-year-old's death remain unclear since Wilson has yet to come forward and speak publicly on the issue that sparked days of riots and accusations of racism and excessive force.
On Tuesday, Chicago firefighter Kevin O'Grady shared a Facebook photo that claimed to show an injured Wilson in the hospital after the incident, Examiner reported. "Here's what the sweet, innocent, gentle giant #MichaelBrown did to #DarrenWilson...," it was captioned.
As it turns out, the man pictured is not Darren Wilson, but that hasn't stop the image from going viral, according to Huffington Post.
The young man with severe facial injuries in the photo, taken in 2006 after a motor accident at a friend's house, is actually motocross rider Jim McNeil, who died in a crash while practicing at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2011.
"Despite the fact that these two men share barely a passing resemblance to one another, the bogus image posted by Kevin O'Grady had racked up nearly 50,000 shares by Thursday evening and had been circulated on Twitter and parts of the blogosphere," Huffington Post reported. "Some who re-shared the image seemed to take it as proof that Brown had attacked Wilson, thereby justifying the six shots that Wilson fired into Brown's body."
For the record, this is what the real Wilson looks like:
However, this is not the first time people have been led to be misguided over the course of the Ferguson incident, International Business Times reported. In August, Kansas City Police Officer Marc Catron posted a photo of a young man holding a gun at the camera and biting down on a wad of cash, claiming it to be Brown with the caption reading, "I'm sure young Michael Brown is innocent and just misunderstood. I'm sure he is a pillar of the Ferguson community."
Later, the image turned out to be of Joda Cain, a young Oregon man who is currently facing charges for killing his great-grandmother.
With or without the hoaxes, support for Officer Darren Wilson has been growing, with people forming groups and rallying to show solidarity. Although it started with porch lights being replaced with blue bulbs, people are now raising money in hopes of helping Wilson get a fair trial if he ends up facing a jury, according to Examiner.