DALLAS – In the midst of Thursday night’s horror in Dallas, police tweeted out a photo of a ‘suspect’ who turned out to be innocent.
Mark Hughes turned himself in to an officer after learning the photo of him holding a rifle was circulating on social media and on national television.
He was later released.
Video shows Hughes handing over his rifle to an officer and accepting a business card from him.
“We received a phone call that my face was on there as a suspect and immediately I flagged down a police officer,” he later said in an interview.
Many took to Twitter to question why he was identified as a suspect, and why his photo remained on the department’s Twitter feed.
Hughes said he was held in a police interrogation room while officers “lied” and said they had video of him shooting a gun and had witnesses who saw him shoot a gun.
“Now you all have my face on the national news. Are you all going to come out and say that this young man had nothing to do with it?” he asked.