A retired firefighter in Chicago named David Quintavalle, who wasn’t even in Washington, DC on the day of the unrest at the Capitol, was accused of murder during the incident by people fanning the flames on social media.
Quintavalle doesn’t use social media and heard about the accusation from a friend.
Mark Konkol reports at Patch:
Trolls Wrongly Accused Retired Firefighter Of Capitol Riot MurderDavid Quintavalle didn’t do it.The retired Chicago firefighter from Mount Greenwood — whom social media trolls called a “terrorist” and accused of fatally wielding a fire extinguisher that killed a cop as a mob of Trump-supporting insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — was grocery shopping and celebrating his wife’s birthday in Chicago, Patch has learned.Twitter exploded with unsubstantiated claims Tuesday that Quintavalle — who retired from the fire department in 2016 after 32 years — was the bearded “#extinguisherman” in a surveillance video wearing a “CFD” stocking cap wanted for questioning and “soon to be arrested” by the FBI regarding the fatal beating of U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.Quintavalle, who shaved his beard before Christmas, told Patch that he wasn’t in Washington, D.C., last week. He went grocery shopping at Aldi at 9 a.m. and made a home-cooked supper of filet mignon and lobster to celebrate his wife’s birthday with their Chicago police officer son on the day rioters breached the Capitol.
This completely innocent man has become the target of a virtual lynch mob:
By Tuesday night, Quintavalle began getting angry calls from people saying he’s a “f—— murderer” who belongs in jail. TV news reporters had staked out his house. Chicago police dispatched a patrol car to keep watch overnight, as well, his lawyer said.
Where are the gatekeepers of social media, who are supposedly trying to stop misinformation and the incitement of violence?
The Philadelphia Inquirer is now reporting that authorities arrested the man in the photo:
Retired Delco firefighter accused of injuring officers and a Del. man who paraded a Confederate flag are charged in the Capitol riotA recently retired Delaware County firefighter accused of lobbing a fire extinguisher at police and a father-and-son duo from Delaware caught on camera smashing windows and parading a Confederate flag through the Capitol surrendered to federal authorities Thursday to face charges tied to the Jan. 6 insurrectionist riot in Washington.Prosecutors said Robert Sanford, a 26-year veteran of the Chester Fire Department who left the force in February, injured three people when he tossed the extinguisher at the head of an officer as part of a mob that broke through barricades on the Capitol’s west side. They noted that the incident was separate from a similar attack on Capital Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher by another assailant that same day and later died from his injuries.
At the time of this writing, there are still live posts on Twitter misidentifying David Quintavalle as the suspect:
You may not be interested in social media, but social media is interested in you.
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