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A student at Brown University has described being falsely accused of being behind the shooting at the school as an 'unimaginable nightmare'.
Mustapha Kharbouch claims to have been on the receiving end of 'non-stop death threats and hate speech' after online users erroneously claimed he was connected to the deadly incident.
A huge manhunt was launched for the gunman in the wake of the tragedy at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, last Saturday (13 December).
Two students - Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, and Ella Cook, 19 - were killed, and another nine were injured after shots rang out on campus.
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As police worked to track down the shooter, several social media posts incorrectly claiming that cops were hunting Kharbouch began to emerge, according to AFP.
Despite not being formally named as a person of interest by authorities, armchair detectives appeared to run with the narrative that the Brown student was to blame.
Police have since revealed that they believe Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, 48, carried out the mass shooting. Officials suspect that he acted alone.
Valente studied at the Ivy League university in the early 2000s as a physics student before withdrawing in 2003, but had 'no current active affiliation' to the place, Brown's President Christina Paxson said.
Valente was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, on Thursday (18 December) from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. His motive currently remains unclear.
Authorities also suspect he killed a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nuno Loureiro, 47, on 15 December before taking his own life.
Meanwhile, Kharbouch says he was being hounded by 'unfounded, vile, Islamophobic, and anti-Palestinian accusations' online.
Colonel Darnell Weaver, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, warned online sleuths that sharing baseless accusations only 'complicates' their investigation in a briefing on Thursday.
After identifying Valente as the main suspect, he said: "Criminal investigations are grounded in evidence, not speculation or online commentary.
"The endless barrage of misinformation, disinformation, rumours, leaks and clickbait were not helpful in this investigation. Distractions and unfounded criticisms do not support this work.
"They complicate it and threaten to undermine the justice we seek."
In the wake of his ordeal, Kharbouch has now spoken out about the impact that being wrongly accused of being the gunman who unleashed terror at Brown has had on him.
The student, who is being represented by lawyers from CLEAR Project and Muslim Advocates, shared a statement explaining the 'unimaginable nightmare' he has been forced to endure over the last few days.
"I woke up on Tuesday morning to unfounded, vile, Islamophobic, and anti-Palestinian accusations being directed toward me online," Kharbouch said.
"Instead of grieving with my community in the aftermath of the horrible shooting, I received non-stop death threats and hate speech.
"This is, however, nothing compared to the ongoing acts of genocide against Palestinians living in occupied Gaza and the West Bank.
"But it is a story every Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, and marginalised person knows all too well - we should not live in a world where this is acceptable or normal.
"I refuse to be silenced by anyone who comes after me for my identity and advocacy for Palestinians - a people I happen to owe my entire existence to. Even in this nightmare, I have been flooded with incredible messages of support from friends, faculty, staff, and strangers alike, and it is because of them that I continue to have faith in a world that stands up against all forms of racism."
His legal team claimed that Kharbouch was the victim of an 'online smear campaign' after he was implicated in the shooting.
Describing him as an 'exceptional student' who is 'beloved by the Brown University community', his lawyers confirmed they had to 'respond to inquiries from law enforcement authorities about his whereabouts on the day of the shooting', before going on to explain why references to Kharbouch were scrubbed from the university's website.
It continued: "After far-right online influencers posted hateful vitriol attempting to connect Mustapha to the horrific shooting on Saturday, several Brown University webpages which contained references to him were removed.
"This is a standard precautionary measure to ensure the personal safety of any individual who has been doxxed.
"No person should have to endure what Mustapha did, simply because of their identity. Now that the shooter has been identified, we hope that Mustapha and the rest of the Brown community can move forward and properly grieve."
Brown's President Paxon said that 'online rumours and accusations' were 'devastating' and 'truly troubling activity'.
Topics: US News, Crime, Viral, Social Media
Olivia Burke