Boy suffers harassment after mistaken identity

A local teenager experienced the dark side of social media since Sunday when he became a target on social media because of how similar his name is to the suspected Dayton shooter.On Sunday, a 24-year-old man killed nine and injured 22 people in Dayton before he died in a shootout with police.The local 15-year-old boy's only connection to the shooter is their similar names. But that didn't stop multiple people on social media from using the boy's photo for posts about the shooter."They assumed because he had the same name and supported President Donald Trump than he must be the shooter," the boy's father told the Register on Monday. "It's scary how quickly people jumped to the conclusion."One Twitter user, with almost 2,000 followers, incorrectly identified the the boy as the Dayton shooter and posted his photo alongside the photos of the Gilroy garlic festival shooter and the El Paso shooter."As a nation we need to address the violence of radicalized people with glasses," the user posted. The two alleged killers and the boy all three wear glasses.A classmate of the teen replied to the tweet saying the boy "couldn't hurt a fly." To which another twitter user responded, "you say that now till he pull up and air the school out."The boy's father said as the Twitter harassment continued he started to fear for his son's safety. The boy eventually addressed the mistaken identity on his own Twitter account."For those accusing me of the shooting in Dayton, all we share is a name. I'm 15 and would never commit such an act of horror," the boy wrote. But that didn't stop some Twitter users from responding and harassing him for his political views."Well, you DO support trump soooooo (sic) who's to say that a name is 'all you share,'" one person replied."Change your handle, put it on private and maybe don't spend your time retweeting white nationalists," writer Joey Ayoub replied with a photo of the boy's retweet of President Trump's July 4 post. Ayoub is a former editor for the international blogging site Global Voices and has a certified Twitter account with almost 17,000 followers. "I find it very concerning as both a father and a citizen that even after people knew there was a mistake they continued to harass him," the boy's father said. "People are put in a box because of their political views. There's no leeway just because my son supports the president, they assumed he had something in common with a murderer."The original account which incorrectly identified the boy as the shooter later tweeted the correct photo of the suspected Dayton shooter, but he has yet to take down the photo of the boy despite several people asking him to do so.As of Monday afternoon the original Tweet incorrectly identifying him as the shooter was still up and had almost 4,000 retweets and more than 13,000 likes. By comparison, the tweet where he admitted his mistake only has 170 retweets and 1,700 likes.The boy's father said he's talked to an attorney and plans to speak to another to consider if any legal action needs to be taken.Reach reporter Michael Harrington at michaelharrington@sanduskyregister.com, follow the Register at Facebook.com/SanduskyRegisterA screenshot of the tweet which incorrectly identified the local boy as the Dayton Shooter. The Register has blocked out the boy's photo to protect his privacy.