In the chaotic moments after a sniper opened fire on Dallas police, killing five officers and injuring six, the image of an alleged suspect was shared from the Dallas Police Department’s Twitter account.
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The image showed a man wearing a camouflage T-shirt, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle.
“This is one of our suspects,” the tweet reads. “Please help us find him.”
The picture, which has since been retweeted nearly 40,000 times, is of Mark Hughes — an innocent protester who was attending the Black Lives Matter march with his brother.
Within minutes, Hughes had become the subject of a heated manhunt, both on the ground in Dallas and on social media where users scoured through video footage looking for a glimpse of the alleged suspect.
However, some social media users began questioning whether police had the right man. Amateur video depicting the moments after shots were fired appeared to show a man matching his description standing with other bystanders — gun by his side.
By the time his picture was splashed across national television, Hughes had already turned himself in to police. His brother, Cory Hughes, said they immediately found an officer and handed over his gun in fear that he would be shot. According to Hughes lawyers, he had a permit to carry a gun. In Texas, permit holders are permitted to openly carry guns.
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“Less than 48 hours ago a young man with a permit to carry a gun was killed by a cop. So when shots started firing I went to the cops and I told my brother, ‘Give your gun to this cop,’ because we don’t want an accident,” said his brother.
“We don’t want them to come around the corner and see you with a gun and start shooting at you.”
According to Hughes, he was held in an interrogation room for 30 minutes, where he said police claimed to have video of him shooting a gun during the protest. Hughes maintains he did not fire his gun.
He was released shortly after without charge.
But Dallas police have since come under scrutiny for not redacting their tweet, or issuing an update clarifying that Hughes is no longer a suspect.
According to the family’s lawyer, Hughes has received thousands of death threats since his image was shared by police.
“I just looked at my Facebook inbox — I’ve got death threats. On Twitter, people are telling us that they want to kill us,” said Cory Hughes.
Hughes’ attorney, Corwyn Davis, said Dallas police did not follow protocol when naming Hughes as a suspect.
WATCH: Dallas man mistakenly identified as shooting suspect receives ‘thousands’ of death threats: lawyers
“We have inconsistencies with ‘person of interest’ or ‘suspect,’” Davis said. “We have a lot of people out here that don’t take too kindly to the shooting of cops.”
On Twitter, activists expressed concerns that Hughes would be targeted following the incident.
Dallas police have not issued an update to their tweet; however, City of Dallas public information pfficer Emily Black retweeted the original tweet adding, “The man cooperated, was interviewed and released. He is not a suspect/person of interest.”
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