Update 2:18pm CT: In response to numerous inquiries, the Twitter user has since deleted their tweets. The original story appears below.
A Twitter user claiming to be the uncle of a student killed in Uvalde, Texas is fake, according to a number of debunks by Twitter users who found widespread discrepancies and unbelievable claims in the account’s past.
The account, @MyCancerJourne3, tweeted yesterday that he identified his nephew who was killed in the shooting. He then said he was followed home, worried the media was hounding him. But according to the account, it was actually staffers of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) who came to their house and attempted to bribe them to speak out against gun control.
The shocking claim that Abbott would attempt to bribe families of Uvalde victims to stand with him brought about widespread ire from Twitter users, given the lack of urgency on gun control from a number of prominent Texas politicians after the massacre.
The tweet has over 30,000 retweets and over 90,000 likes. It even attracted the attention of Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who replied to the tweet offering assistance to the user.
But as soon as the story began to go viral, others called out what appear to be fake stories from the account.
It appears the tale was entirely untrue.
