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apnews.com
What a truly f**ken horrible thing for these people to have to gone through.This is the unemotive cold hearted BS that I don't get from conservatives.
Sandy Hook families testify about threats, fear of deniers
Two parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre and the daughter of the school’s slain principal testified Wednesday of the fear and pain they have suffered from being targeted with threats by those who believe the lie that the shooting was a hoax.
From the evidence
Erica Lafferty said the general harassment began soon after the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, with people telling her it was a hoax and that her mother never died. But soon, she said, it got scary and more graphic.
“Things would be mailed to my house that were threats of rape,” the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung testified Wednesday.
Lafferty is among those suing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for promoting the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories on his media platforms, including his Infowars web show. She took the stand Wednesday along with David Wheeler and Jennifer Hensel, who lost children in the shooting.
In often emotional testimony, family members described enduring death threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media. Some moved to avoid to avoid the abuse.
“There are days when grief is just so awful,” said Hensel, whose 6-year-old daughter Avielle Richman was among the slain. “Then you add on the idea that people think you made all this up for money or that your child didn’t exist. That compounds everything.”
After the shooting, Hensel and her husband, Jeremy Richman, set up a foundation named for their daughter. Soon after, the foundation’s email addresses were flooded with messages saying Avielle did not exist, that Hensel and others were actors and questioning why money was being raised from a fake shooting.
The harassment has continued ever since, Hensel testified. In 2019, after Jeremy Richman died by suicide, friends called Hensel to tell her people were at the cemetery where Avielle was buried looking for evidence her husband had died.
“It was relatively soon after Jeremy’s death and I was still reeling from that and I had to compartmentalize that,” she said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around just one more family member being part of this narrative. It simply doesn’t end.”
One of the jurors wept as Hensel testified and was comforted by another panel member.
Lafferty testified she’s moved five times since the shooting and avoids going out to grocery stores and other public places. She said she’s endured death and rape threats from people telling her that her mother was fictional.
She said she became part of the lawsuit so her niece would know the truth.
“I wanted to make sure that I was at least taking steps to make sure the first thing that came up when she Googled her grandmother’s name wasn’t that she never existed,” she said.
Wheeler, father of 6-year-old victim Ben Wheeler, detailed two instances in which people actually showed up at his home — one demanding to see Ben, insisting he was alive.
He said people also pointed to a student film he made in college as proof he was a “crisis actor.”
“It’s very stressing,” he said.
“It was demeaning. It felt like being delegitimized in a way,” he added. “It makes you feel like you don’t matter.”
I watched it. Not eye opening at all and typical of what I have previously seen of him.
Who is the 'they' you are asking about here?
The Roosters.
This is the unemotive cold hearted BS that I don't get from conservatives.
Sandy Hook families testify about threats, fear of deniers
Two parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre and the daughter of the school’s slain principal testified Wednesday of the fear and pain they have suffered from being targeted with threats by those who believe the lie that the shooting was a hoax.
From the evidence
Erica Lafferty said the general harassment began soon after the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, with people telling her it was a hoax and that her mother never died. But soon, she said, it got scary and more graphic.
“Things would be mailed to my house that were threats of rape,” the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung testified Wednesday.
Lafferty is among those suing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for promoting the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories on his media platforms, including his Infowars web show. She took the stand Wednesday along with David Wheeler and Jennifer Hensel, who lost children in the shooting.
In often emotional testimony, family members described enduring death threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media. Some moved to avoid to avoid the abuse.
“There are days when grief is just so awful,” said Hensel, whose 6-year-old daughter Avielle Richman was among the slain. “Then you add on the idea that people think you made all this up for money or that your child didn’t exist. That compounds everything.”
After the shooting, Hensel and her husband, Jeremy Richman, set up a foundation named for their daughter. Soon after, the foundation’s email addresses were flooded with messages saying Avielle did not exist, that Hensel and others were actors and questioning why money was being raised from a fake shooting.
The harassment has continued ever since, Hensel testified. In 2019, after Jeremy Richman died by suicide, friends called Hensel to tell her people were at the cemetery where Avielle was buried looking for evidence her husband had died.
“It was relatively soon after Jeremy’s death and I was still reeling from that and I had to compartmentalize that,” she said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around just one more family member being part of this narrative. It simply doesn’t end.”
One of the jurors wept as Hensel testified and was comforted by another panel member.
Lafferty testified she’s moved five times since the shooting and avoids going out to grocery stores and other public places. She said she’s endured death and rape threats from people telling her that her mother was fictional.
She said she became part of the lawsuit so her niece would know the truth.
“I wanted to make sure that I was at least taking steps to make sure the first thing that came up when she Googled her grandmother’s name wasn’t that she never existed,” she said.
Wheeler, father of 6-year-old victim Ben Wheeler, detailed two instances in which people actually showed up at his home — one demanding to see Ben, insisting he was alive.
He said people also pointed to a student film he made in college as proof he was a “crisis actor.”
“It’s very stressing,” he said.
“It was demeaning. It felt like being delegitimized in a way,” he added. “It makes you feel like you don’t matter.”
