SALT LAKE CITY — Even after the manhunt ended, the rumor mill raged on, affecting innocent Utahns who had nothing to do with the deadly shooting of Charlie Kirk or the suspect who was arrested.
"Honestly, I'm angry because I don't understand how you can take a young man and do this," said Lawrence.
Lawrence said some people online identified his son as the person who shot and killed Kirk during an appearance at Utah Valley University. He believes people jumped to conclusions because his son wrote a song six months ago about Kirk being dead at 31.
"Yes, he's into weird stuff, and he's like every other kid. He's got hobbies that we'll never understand for our generation, you know, but it doesn't make him the enemy," Lawrence said.
The rumors became so fierce, it led to his son being interviewed by the FBI and the Riverdale Police Department as a potential suspect.
"If you bully, if you do anything like this, you are literally just as bad as the person that pulled the trigger," argued Lawrence. "Because now you're trying to push a kid to either suicide or somebody to take his life, or somebody to fight him and beat him up, to harm him in some way, you are pushing for that."
He said even after the suspect was arrested, people camped outside their home. It was bad enough that Lawrence says he had to shut down his business.
Stop sharing fake, AI-generated photos of Charlie Kirk shooting suspect:
In the moments after officials announced the arrest of Tyler Robinson for Kirk's death, word began circulating via social media that Robinson’s father was a retired deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
"That is not true," explained Sgt. Lucas Alfred with the sheriff's office. "That retired deputy is not the father of the suspect. It can be a fairly common name."
Alfred understands why people want answers right away in high-profile cases, but in this particular case, he said the misinformation was out of line.
"After faithfully serving Washington County for 27 years and working very hard, he deserves that time alone," said Alfred. "He doesn't need people calling him with questions or anything else when he has no information on this whatsoever."
