The woman whose social media post helped ignite false claims of pets being eaten in Springfield, Ohio, said Friday the post was based on a rumor and that she feels remorse for the Haitian immigrants.
Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, recently authored a post on Facebook, saying that her neighbor’s cat was lost and she was told it was because the pet was attacked by a Haitian immigrant.
Kimberly Newton, Lee’s neighbor, acknowledged this week to NewsGuard, “I don’t actually know the person who lost the cat.” Newton added that the cat’s owner was “an acquaintance of a friend.”
Now, Lee, has said she was sorry about the way the events unfolded, with the unfounded conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants amplified by both former President Trump and his vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R).
“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee said in an interview with NBC News on Friday.
Lee, whose Facebook post has been deleted, stated she did not expect that local gossip would spiral into a national story.
“I’m not a racist,” she said. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”
Lee said she is mixed race and her daughter is half Black.
“I feel for the Haitian community,” Lee told NBC. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”
Besides Lee’s post, other viral social media posts have also fueled the false accusations. Springfield officials debunked this week’s rumors that Haitian migrants were eating people’s cats and dogs.
The city is still tussling with the fallout of the unfounded conspiracy theories.
The Springfield City School District closed one middle school and evacuated two elementary schools Friday. Just a day prior, Springfield City Hall was evacuated after a bomb threat was issued to “multiple facilities.”