Brantford Police, in a rare move, took the online public to task Wednesday for erroneous reports on social media of a child’s death at a daycare centre.
“We are aware of social media posts speculating that officers are on scene at Colborne Street and Kiwanis Way to investigate the death of a child. This is false information,” said Brantford Police communications manager Robin Matthews-Osmond in a post to the Brantford Police page on Facebook. “At this time we would like to remind the public that this type of speculation and sharing of information that you do not know to be factual can be harmful and upsetting to others.”
Yellow tape corded off a large section of the lawn in front of the Brantford Little School daycare center on the grounds of Pauline Johnson Collegiate on Colborne Street.
Earlier in the day fire and EMS personnel were at the scene.
Shortly after 1 pm a daycare center worker came outside to ask a police officer if anything could be done about people posting on social media that a child had died at the centre.
She said that the online information was not true, adding that one parent came running to the school after seeing the erroneous report online,
Matthews-Osmond told The Expositor the incident was a non-suspicious death of an adult male, and is not something that police normally report on to media.