Twitter Murder Case: Are Social Networking Sites Dangerous?
Posted by Starwin on 14th January, 2010
Blake , the alleged ‘twitter’ murder
Dancy, the ‘twitter’ victim who died
The danger of social networking sites came on the forefront against with the news of the first Twitter murder. US police is investigating what they think is the first murder that has happened due to Twitter messages. Detectives in New York say a powerful confrontation between two friends came to the forefront after angry messages and comments were posted on Twitter, the Microblogging site.
The police will be sending a legal notice to the Twitter site to get access to the messages that were sent between alleged killer Jameg Blake and Kwame Dancy.Criminal experts said it would be the first time the 140-word postings would be used as evidence in a murder trial.
Prosecutors will use the postings to show the increasingly hostile relationship between people. The police say that Blake, 22, and Dancy, also 22, had spent weeks sending each other angry messages via their Twitter accounts.The pair, childhood friends, lived on the same floor of a high-rise block of flats but had fallen apart over a girl. Other friends also joined in the row, possibly instigating them with their tweets.
Police said hours before Dancy was killed shot in the neck by alleged killer, Jameg Blake he sent his victim a tweet which said: ‘N——s is looking for u don’t think I won’t give up ya address for a price betta chill asap!’
Police said Dancy, who was training as a nurse, died after being shot as he left his home in Harlem, New York on December 1st.The murder weapon was later found abandoned in Central Park along with a spent shell.Two days after the killing Blake took to his Twitter account to post the message: ‘R.I.P. Kwame’.
Dancy’s mother, Madeline Smith, said she was stunned to learn that tweets between the friends could have led to murder.’That’s not a reason to shoot somebody,’ she said.’That’s crazy. I don’t know what’s going on with that Twitter thing.’
Smith said her son and Blake had been friends since childhood. ‘They were good friends, that’s the sad part about it,’ she said.Obviously, I didn’t know him like I thought I did. I just want to ask him. ‘Why? How could you?”
Police have recovered CCTV footage from the block of flats where both men lived showing Blake leaving with a bag big enough to hold a shotgun.An eye-witness has also identified Blake as a gunman. He has been charged with first degree murder
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