Ferguson Riots: Anonymous Names Innocent Man As Michael Brown’s Killer, Police Say
The shadowy hacker group Anonymous Thursday morning made good on its threat to leak the name of the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown last Saturday — a killing that set off what so far has been four nights of protests, which have been met by heavily armed response from police.
Anonymous put the officer’s name on its Twitter account Thursday morning. But there’s only one slight problem. They got the wrong guy.
At least, St. Louis County police say they did. In fact, they say that the man named in the Anonymous leak is not even a police officer with the Ferguson police, or the St. Louis County police.
The name released by Anonymous was “Bryan Willman,” but St. Louis County police called Willman “a random citizen” who has nothing to do with the case and pleaded with Anonymous not to release any further information about him.
@TheAnonMessage Bryan Willman is not even an officer with Ferguson or St. Louis County PD. Do not release more info on this random citizen.
— St. Louis County PD (@stlcountypd) August 14, 2014
Anonymous, which had threatened to release further personal information about the man, responded defiantly, following up with a tweet that included a screen grab from the Facebook page of a man identifying himself as “Scooby Willman.” The photo included a comment from “Scooby Willman,” reading, “nobody will find me with that name!”
Twitter quickly suspended the Anonymous account, but the hacker group — which in this case may actually be just one person; there is no way to confirm how many Anonymous members are involved —- quickly switched to a second account, @TheAnonMessage2.
But on that Twitter feed, Anonymous appeared to back down at least temporarily, saying that it would not release any more information “until further notice.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: We are ceasing any future dox releases until further notice. #Anonymous #Ferguson
— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 14, 2014
Anonymous also linked to a newly created Facebook page entitled “Justice For Bryan Willman,” which pleaded, “Stop the rush to judgment.” Anonymous deemed the page “actually hilarious.”
At the same time, the American Civil Liberties Union filed lawsuit Thursday to compel police to release the reports filed in connection with the slaying of Michael Brown. The ACLU had earlier requested the police report under open records laws, but the Ferguson police rebuffed that request.
The new lawsuit claims that the police reports fall under the definition of public records under Missouri state laws, and the fact that the police have not and say they will not release them breaks those laws.
Both the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper and the National Bar Association have also placed open record requests for the police reports, but no response has yet been forthcoming from St. Louis County or local Ferguson police.
