Aylmer police are stressing the importance of reserving judgment after an investigation cleared a “person of interest,” already vilified on social media, in an attempted child abduction, police say.
An Aylmer woman reported her seven-year-old son was approached on Aug. 10 after 9 p.m. by a man who offered candy and asked the boy to get into his vehicle parked nearby, Aylmer police said.
After an investigation based on the description of the vehicle and the man, police concluded a “person of interest in this matter as having absolutely no involvement in this incident,” police said in a news release Monday.
“As a result of some online social media activity, involving the community members, there’s some indication, or people basically assumed that it was one particular individual responsible when, in fact, that wasn’t the case,” Aylmer police Chief Zvonko Horvat said.
Meanwhile, a “vigilante-type incident” through social media is being investigated by Aylmer police, Horvat said. In small communities, online chatter can become “a bit of a wildfire,” he said, but wanted to assure citizens the matter was taken seriously and was fully investigated by police.
“We just wanted to make sure that the local citizens are aware that, A, there is no public safety issue, and, B, that person who was a person of interest had absolutely no involvement in the attempted abduction that was reported,” Horvat said.
Police said there wasn’t any video footage available of the attempted abduction, and there wasn’t any information to suggest the child’s account of the reported incident was fabricated, which prompted police to launch the investigation.
Officers took witness statements and engaged in surveillance measures to ensure public safety, police said.
“This finding shows the importance of maintaining the integrity of police investigations through verifiable, evidence-based techniques to ensure the rights of all involved are respected, and all available evidence is thoroughly scrutinized,” police said.
Horvat said investigation into the matter is closed but if new information emerges it will be reopened.