US

Media Personality Suggests Teen Suspects Were The Real Victims In Fatal Assault At Maryland Fair

Police line (Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Media personality Tariq Nasheed didn’t provide evidence to back up his claim that a victim “racially harassed and spit on some Black kids” who were arrested for allegedly attacking and killing a 59-year-old man.

John Marvin Weed died after allegedly being attacked Friday by a 15- and 16-year-old at a fair in Maryland, WJLA reported, citing law enforcement sources. Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins called it a “brutal, unprovoked attack.” The two teens are both suspected attackers, with one of them reportedly striking Weed fatally. Multiple media outlets wrote up the story, reporting the attack occurred after Weed, who was with his family, refused to give the boys $1.

Nasheed, whose Twitter bio states he is the “world’s #1 Race Baiter,” wrote Monday afternoon that the “white media” is “telling the same LIE about this case.” He said Weed was “a suspected white supremacist” who had egged the teenagers on by spitting on them and using racial slurs.

Notice that all of the white media is getting on code and telling the same LIE about this case. A suspected white supremacist named John Weed racially harassed & spit on some Black kids. And one of the kids defended himself. So it was 100% “provoked” https://t.co/pGq7BsQRY4

— Tariq Nasheed ???????? (@tariqnasheed) September 23, 2019

Nasheed told the Daily Caller News Foundation witnesses saw Weed call “the Black children racial slurs,” adding that law enforcement didn’t release his name right away “so that the internet could be scrubbed” of Weed’s social media.

“There were witnesses who said he called the Black children racial slurs,” Nasheed told the DCNF in an email. “And you probably won’t find anything on him now because law enforcement waited to release his name, so that the internet could be scrubbed of all his social media first.”

He did not respond to a further request for comment when asked for witnesses who said Weed used racial slurs before being killed. He also did not respond to a question asking to direct the DCNF to where he found witnesses to support his claim.

None of the outlets confirmed Weed’s alleged ties to white supremacy. Police interviewed multiple witnesses who said Weed had been minding his own business before the attack, WJLA reported.

The media personality added that Weed had a “long criminal rap sheet” as well. The DCNF verified that Weed’s rap sheet dated back to 1993 and included charges ranging from drug offenses to burglary.

“There was some sort of dialogue that ensued after that that made it a negative situation,” Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith said, according to CBS Baltimore. “There was a punch that was delivered to the back of the head by the 16-year-old, at that point in time there was a number of minutes that elapsed after that at which point in time — you all saw the video — the younger 15-year-old came flying through, lands a deadly blow to the victim.”

The prosecutor for the case called the attack “completely random,” CBS Baltimore reported.

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.