Lubbock Police are continuing to see a trend in violent crimes stemming from social media altercations. Lt. Ray Mendoza, LPD’s Commander of Crimes Against Children said cyber trails are important to investigations.
“It’s passed the point of seeing an increase, we are now in the thick of social media playing a role in just about every crime that we investigate,”
Four months ago 20-year-old Roy Reed was shot and killed at Burns Park. His mother, Mickey Reed said he was there supporting his cousin who was involved in a fight that had been brewing via Facebook for weeks.
“Let’s go start another Facebook page and let’s go start another fight, let’s go kill another person, that’s all it is, every week you’re hearing about someone getting killed, a young child getting killed,” Reed said.
On July Fourth, a 17-year-old was shot following a Snapchat fight between two groups. Weeks before that an 18-year old’s boyfriend beat her for downloading the Snapchat app. Lt. Mendoza encourages parents to be nosy.
“See what they are up to if someone is bullying them or they are bullying someone else, get involved in the apps they are using,” Mendoza said.
