The disbelief over unruly crowds fighting and being pepper sprayed over Air Jordan Concords turned to mourning when it was reported on social media and blogs that a man named Tyreek Amir Jacobs, 18, had been killed for the coveted shoes, says the Baltimore Sun. As the rumors put it, Jacobs was a teen from Washington D.C., and killed in Maryland. A photo of him was passed around, inscribed with his date of birth and date of death. Police said there had been no killings under such circumstances in the area.
“Nothing like that has happened here, and I hope we would know,” said one Montgomery County, Md., police official. While media outlets reported on disturbances, none ended fatally. At least 12,000 people were participating in no less than eight Facebook groups about Jacobs’ killing. The photo appears to have been lifted from the NAACP Legal Defenders blog, posted in October 2010. The fund’s Lee Daniels says his web site started noticing a bump in traffic. “It appears to be just another Internet phenomenon,” he said.