SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. – Police and community advocates say they have no information indicating a viral Twitter post detailing an alleged hate crime.
The post claims an Asian-American woman was followed from the Walmart in Sun Prairie to her home, where it claims she was beaten and robbed. The post further claims that police are searching for a possible suspect, before asking for monetary donations.
Sun Prairie police say they, nor any agency in the area, has record of such an event happening.
“We quickly found out that nope, we did not have any reports that matched that detail over the weekend,” said Lt. Ryan Cox. “That’s a pretty significant event that we would know at this agency offhand regardless.”
Cox said police in Sun Prairie then contacted departments, both local and county, with no luck of matching the claim. In addition, AAPI community leaders say they are unaware of such an incident happening.
A twitter post claiming an Asian-American woman was followed, beaten and robbed by a Trump supporter after leaving a Sun Prairie Wal-Mart has been shared 2K times and has raised $1300.
But area police and #AAPISolidarity advocates say they have no record of it happening. pic.twitter.com/zNdX4ckFBd
— Adam Duxter (@News3Adam) March 24, 2021
“If you meet the elements of obstruction, leading an officer down a path that is requiring them to take overt steps down a path to investigate the potential crime that’s being reported…there would potentially be some type of crimes that would fit,” Cox said.
The Twitter user, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment, originally used a profile photo of a popular Thai actor.
Public records do not match a person with the name listed as living in Wisconsin.
Cox said should there be truth to the incident, police would like to investigate.
“We’re going to listen to you. You come in and you report it, we’re going to listen to you,” Cox said. “You make a phone call, we’re going to listen to you. We’re not going to assume one way or the other until we’ve identified all the facts and help you in whatever way we can.”
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