Before the turn of midnight, the release of the “Concord” Air Jordan 11s caused mayhem at several malls and shopping centers across America. ?Several malls, who planned for a midnight release of the highly sought after shoes, were forced to close and cancel their plans at the orders of local police including Barton Creek Mall in our hometown of Austin, TX.
Line jumping was a frequent problem at many locations and often provided the catalyst for violence between those hoping to get a pair of the coveted shoes. ?The topic of violence received great attention when there was word that an 18-year-old?Tyreek Amir Jacobs was murdered for his Concords.
Immediately getting a viral push across social media including a retweet from CNBC’s Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell, the supposed victim’s name became a trending topic on twitter.
With some basic journalism work by Justin Fenton at the Baltimore Sun, this breaking story appeared to be nothing more than a well orchestrated rumor. ?First off, local police in the DC area refuted hearing any reports of such a crime. ?The next big thing uncovered was that the photo of the supposed victim, Tyreek Amir Jacobs, appears to be lifted from the?NAACP’s Legal Defenders blog?the just so happens to be a stock photo anyone can purchase for $1.43.
At the time of the writing of this post, there have been no credible media outlets that have reported this rumor to have any truth to it and we hope that to be the case. ?Much negative media attention has come from the release of the Concords, but the worst kind of bad news spread around is that to not even be the truth.
