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Police condemn 'viral' photos of murder victim

Disturbing pictures of the blood-soaked body of the Mangrove Bay murder victim circulated via e-mail yesterday, prompting a warning from the Police.The 29-year-old man from Warwick was gunned down yesterday afternoon, prompting a flurry of speculation via “viral” emails and social networking sites. Police spokesman Dwayne Caines said late last night: “Police have received information of persons circulating the picture of the deceased at the scene in a blood drenched shirt.“Firstly, this is very insensitive to the family and friends of the deceased, as some are yet to find out the identity of the 29-year-old Warwick man and others are coming to grips with the new reality of his passing.“Secondly, the service would like to talk with the person who captured the image on what we believe to be a camera phone. We believe this person my have some very valuable information that the police may find useful.“We are asking anyone who receives this very disturbing image not to pass it on but to simply disregard the image.”The warning came after an earlier incident where a picture of a 19-year-old man who was not the deceased circulated widely via email. That picture even reached the BlackBerries of Members of Parliament as they reflected on the latest violence in the House of Assembly.Reflecting on the flurry of disturbing and inaccurate information last night, Mr Caines said: “In a culture of text messaging, BlackBerry messaging, Facebook and Twitter in a small community like Bermuda, we urge the public to be careful when promulgating images of people before they are confirmed. “It can cause undue stress to the family and impede the police investigation. Today we saw two very clear cases of this.”The name of the deceased had not been released by the police by press time, although tributes to him were already being posted by his friends on the Facebook site. This newspaper has withheld from printing the name until it is formally confirmed.The person who captured the picture of the victim's body is urged to contact Chief Inspector Nick Pedro on 2950011 or the confidential Crime stoppers hotline on 800-8477.