The message has all the makings of another tragedy that could turn ugly.
A Twitter message on Sunday by a Brentwood, Mo., resident who tweets under the name Paul Hampel notes that Ferguson protester Becca Campbell “was fatally shot on Fri.” The tweet, which appears below, also contains a picture of Campbell that Hampel notes he took, which shows her “arguing with a cop.”
1. On 8/18, I took this pic of #Ferguson protester Becca Campbell arguing w a cop. Campbell was fatally shot on Fri. pic.twitter.com/coDGN29xVF
— Paul Hampel (@phampel) November 24, 2014
What is missing from the tweet are the facts that (1) the gun was Campbell’s (she bought it in preparation “for possible Ferguson-related unrest”) and (2) that the shooter was Campbell herself. From ABC affiliate WISN via CNN:
A woman appears to have accidentally fatally shot herself in the head with a gun bought to prepare for possible Ferguson-related unrest, according to sources briefed on the police investigation. […] The female victim, identified in a police report as Becca Campbell, 26, was a passenger in a car involved in an auto accident. Her 33-year-old boyfriend was driving, the sources told CNN.
As for Ferguson residents taking up arming against the advent of civil unrest, a report last week by J.E. Dyer indicates that a Ferguson-area police officer supposedly warned residents to buy a gun. Is it a stretch to hold the police responsible for Campbell’s death? One of Hampel’s Tweeter correspondents seems to raise that specter:
@phampel @TheTrialFile Well at least the cops didn’t do it…. Or did they? O. o #Ferguson
— ReallyRick (@TheReallyRick) November 24, 2014
