'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.

Lee recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat was the victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbors.

Newsguard, a media watchdog that monitors for misinformation online, found that Lee had been among the first people to publish a post to social media about the rumor, screenshots of which circulated online. The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party, NewsGuard reported.

Newton told Newsguard that Lee’s Facebook post misstated her story, and that the owner of the missing cat was “an acquaintance of a friend” rather than her daughter’s friend. Newton could not be reached for comment.

Lee said she had no idea the post would become part of a rumor mill that would spiral into the national consciousness. She has since deleted the Facebook post.

Other posts have also contributed to the false allegations, including a photo of a man holding a dead goose that was taken in Columbus, Ohio, but was spread by some online as evidence of the claims about Springfield. Graphic video of a woman who allegedly killed and tried to eat a cat was also found not to have originated in Springfield but in Canton, Ohio, and does not have any connection to the Haitian community.

Local police and city officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence of such crimes in Springfield, but that hasn’t stopped the lies from spreading across the country and igniting a national frenzy that landed on the presidential debate stage this week. Former President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who was born less than an hour away from Springfield, have repeated the baseless allegations.

Lee said she never imagined her post would become fodder for conspiracy theories and hate.

“I’m not a racist,” she said through heavy emotion, adding that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”

The anti-immigrant fervor in Springfield led to school and municipal building closures on Thursday and Friday after city officials received bomb threats.

Lee said she pulled her daughter out of school and is now worried about her safety with so much attention on her family. She is also concerned for the safety of the Haitian community, which she said she did not intend to villainize en masse.

“I feel for the Haitian community,” she said. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”

Immigrant advocacy groups have said these kinds of claims can be dangerous.

“The Haitian-American community in Springfield, OH and around the country is feeling targeted and unsafe because dehumanizing, debunked and racist conspiracies are being advanced at the highest levels of American politics and are still being repeated,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America's Voice, a nonprofit that advocates for immigration reform said in an email. “The false claim that Black immigrants are violently attacking American families by stealing and eating their pets is a powerful and old racist trope that puts a target on people’s backs, and it is turbo-charged in the era of MAGA when political violence has become commonplace and we have already witnessed violent incidents incited by such rhetoric.”

Lee said that there are very real problems related to Springfield's population boom that caught the struggling city off guard. Springfield was not prepared to address the housing, health care and other service needs that came with the sudden increase of new residents over the last five years when Haitians arrived, many of them with protected status under federal law.

Still, she never imagined that her Facebook post would set off a national news cycle.

“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield," she said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/-just-exploded-springfield-woman-says-never-meant-spark-rumors-haitian-rcna171099?s=08



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8AGoA2Jcd4?si=zlvvDYuVLhN0bu1_

Why post what you're not sure of?

People could be so callous!

Hmmm

Trump the Nigerians darling. That man talks and behaves like a child and to imagine most Nigerians support him cause of God factor they believe he represents.
No wonder we mostly make poor choices in governance here, easily swayed by stupid things, only go out and pick the loudest noise add our voices to it to make it louder as the truth...leaving no room for basic thinking.

A former president and a candidate that is so publicly racist, divisive, uncouth and lie with every breath.
Almost all the people close to him are publicly racist with no decorum. Imagine one recently saying the Whitehouse will start smelling like curry if the Indian Kamala is elected.
Trump can practically call black people apes and some Nigerians will still applaud him that he doesn't pretend, he says things the way it is and he represents God so they like him.

MAGA is just a rallying point for all the scums of the earth with nothing to do with making America great again. It is a tree of division, hatred etc that every bad person over there identify with and Trump is the root.

But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Elon musk reposted something similar on x.
It's like Elon bought twitter for a personal agenda.

ologbo ati ewedu ati amala

False news everywhere...

American politics sef. 🤣🤣🤣

Lmao

Cho cho cho.

See where e don land am now. She has pit people at risk with her rubbish post now she's apologising.

When they are harmed in anyway she'll say she's sorry and move on.

There should be punishment for false posts online

Some Nigerians that have never been to US are even helping to spread the rumours.

Trump is an asshole

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Trump promised not to be divisive this time around. Why should a leader be spewing a rumour like it was fact?

honestly that eating dogs and cats talk was really low and senseless for Trump to believe and even bring to the debate.

It's like he deliberately sabotaged his own campaign. Kamala is surely going to win this now

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Stop defending rubbish. If you believe every post you see on Facebook without verifying then you aren't qualified to be a leader.

Especially a very controversial and inciting post like this that is capable of spreading hate and xenophobia

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Trump is a fool.

What kind of leader makes disparaging remarks, and ultimately, takes action on the basis of unfounded rumours?

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Seen your parents eat cats?

When there are are pictures and videos everywhere on X? I saw a video of a woman calling 911 reporting a black man stealing cats in her neighbourhood, i even saw a picture of a man with two big goose, and all these are against the law

These liberals will say anything to justify why they allow illegal immigrants, just cos democrats needs their votes.

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Stfu


Because it was posted online by a random person, a competent presidential aspirant will verify every source of his information before saying it out. All these ipob dogz retards. But if it's the other way round, you'll be quick to blame Hillary

Hmmm

The stupid woman was not the one directly affected but she rushed to post the news on Facebook so that she will claim that she heard it first

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

just like our religion warrior 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

Tell that to this woman that lost her pet to the haitians.

https://x.com/TheRightMelissa/status/1834250487157121156?s=19

Now more than ever there is a strong need to have laws against wilful dissemination of fake news

This is one of the effects of spreading false news, I see a lot of forwarded Whatsapp messages on my phone every time that are always fake, even from "educated\informed" people

If man kind cannot put an end to false and fake news
Fake and false news will put an end to man kind.

washmibili:
But they will prefer to blame trump. Trump didn't post those stories online? He only repeated it in debate because people have been sharing the story online.

But let's not pretend we all know some Africans and blacks eat cats and dogs.

Same Trump that posted again a picture of a cat holding a sign: "Kamala does not like me" on his personally handled Instagram account just two days ago?