NC man livestreams his own killing on Facebook

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A North Carolina man filmed himself being fatally shot while on facebook live near Wingate University, outside Charlotte, local media reports.
Time

A gunman shot and killed a North Carolina man Monday while the victim was broadcasting live on Facebook using a selfie stick.

Police say Prentis Robinson — who often livestreamed himself via his phone while walking around the town of Wingate, N.C. — was shot while on one of his typical Facebook live jaunts.

During his walk, Robinson talks to someone off-camera, repeatedly telling him, “You on Live,” an apparent attempt to tell his soon-to-be attacker that anything he did would be captured on video. 

The stream then shows a man in jeans and a blue jacket run up to him, several shots are fired and Robinson’s camera falls to the ground as the gunman runs away.

The incident prompted Wingate police to temporarily lock down a local school and university, and investigators are searching for the gunman. Wingate, pop. 4,000, is about 30 miles southeast of Charlotte, N.C.

“We’re hoping to get ID on (the shooter) – we are getting a lot of leads in,” said Tony Underwood, a spokesman for the Union County Sheriff’s Office, which is assisting in the case. Police have not disclosed a possible motive.

Workers at several area businesses said they didn’t know Robinson, although videos he posted to Facebook showed him playing guitar and walking around the town.

“He routinely used Facebook Live as a common practice. I think it was well known that he did that frequently,” Underwood said. ”It’s not everyday you become the victim of a homicide while doing it.”

Facebook Live is a pet project of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and allows users to stream their lives publicly in real time, for free. In an interview with USA TODAY last year, Zuckerberg said his company shoulders the responsibility for halting violence on Live and on Facebook in general.

Facebook, which took fire for rolling out the live-streaming product without an adequate plan to prevent acts of violence from being shown to its 2 billion-plus users, has pledged to use a combination of content moderators and artificial intelligence to remove videos that contain graphic or inappropriate material. It has also made it easier for users to flag videos as violent.

Criticism that Facebook makes it far too easy and enticing to expose millions of viewers to tragic images intensified last year after the Easter Sunday murder of a 74-year-old Cleveland grandfather that was broadcast by his killer.

“We have a responsibility to continue to get better at making sure we are not a tool for spreading” video of violent acts, Zuckerberg said. “Those are all against our community standards. They don’t belong there,” Zuckerberg told USA TODAY.

More: Facebook Live is scene of another suicide; police say ‘I hope this isn’t a trend’

 

Contributing: Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY

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