Elgin Police Probe Scuffle That Stirred Facebook Controversy
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police in Elgin were investigating a scuffle between a cab driver and another motorist, an incident which sparked a mini-uproar on social media over the past few days.
Elgin Police Cmdr. Glenn Theriault said a 34-year old female cab driver and a 59-year old man driving an SUV were involved in a dispute that got physical in the 600 block of Sherman on Wednesday.
The cab driver and the SUV driver blame each other for starting the scuffle, but after the punches stopped being thrown, and police were called, a person – identified by police as a government official – posted a photo on Facebook, giving the wrong impression of what happened.
The picture showed a person with a severe head injury, even though nothing like that happened.
"It wasn't even the individual that had been injured," Theriault said. And while the cab driver did suffer a head injury, it was not as severe as the one shown in the picture.
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The photo has since been removed from Facebook.
Theriault said Elgin police took to Facebook to defuse the situation, and point out not only was the picture incorrect, but police were still investigating to determine who had initiated the fight.
"For us, as a police department, that just goes far above and beyond what's acceptable and supportive of our community. It causes undue fear in the community, and is intentionally misleading," he said.
The commander described the posting of the picture was an "abuse of social media."
