A report of a serial killer at large in Palm Springs, targeting members of the LGBTQ community, circulated on Facebook on Monday. It turned out to be a fiction—a story possibly concocted for unknown reasons by a Facebook user law enforcement have not yet identified.
"We do not have knowledge of any such threat, and we do not know the source of this information," the Palm Springs Police Department posted to its Facebook page on Monday.
Lt. William Hutchinson said the person to originally post the false information had gone "silent" after being reached by law enforcement officials. The original post had been taken down, but not before it was shared by multiple people on Facebook.
Those who reposted the story were contacted by police and asked to voluntarily remove the posts.
"We understand and appreciate those users who wanted to help. However, this information is simply untrue," the department posted to Facebook.
Hutchinson told City News Service that spreading false information is not a crime, and thus the department would not be pursuing criminal charges against whoever originated the story.