SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Online claims, boosted by high-profile politicians, have raised tensions in Springfield, Ohio, a city of about 60,000 people.
The claims that have been circulating that the city’s Haitian immigrant population have been killing wildlife and people’s pets for food. City leaders, along with the police and parks department, have refuted these claims.
“It is disappointing that some of the narratives surrounding our city has been skewed by misinformation circulating on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric in the current highly charged presidential election cycle,” said Bryan Heck, Springfield City Manager, in a video statement Wednesday afternoon.
Former President Donald Trump amplified the online rumors during Tuesday night’s debate.
“In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.
10TV spoke with people in Springfield over the lunch hour about the claims.
“It’s sad that there’s so many mistruths and dishonest comments being made about this population,” said John Brown. “I don’t know the source, but talking with the city, police chief and others, there’s no substantiation of these rumors.”
“The Haitian community is here, they’re going to be here. They’re going to start businesses here. We do have an issue with the driving. That can be fixed,” said James Steward. “We do have issues with the violent crime and it’s not being committed by the Haitians.”
He was referencing a string of car crashes which have been attributed to the immigrant community in the city. That has been a topic of discussion during the public comment portions of the city’s commissioner meetings.
Rose-Thamar Joseph is the Operations Manager for the Springfield’s Haitian Support Center. She’s lived in Springfield for two years. She says she was unaware of the online claims until a couple days ago.
“All of those rumors… we knew about it that day. We just saw it on social media. That’s all we knew about it also,” she said.
Joseph said there is no truth to the claims when asked about them.
She said many people in her community are uneasy about the growing tensions in the city.
“They have fear, a lot of fears right now. Some of them are talking about leaving Springfield. Some of them are scared for their lives. It’s tough for us,” she said. She also mentioned that she hasn’t heard of any Haitian immigrants receiving threats since this started.
The discussion about the rumors dominated the public comment portion of the Sept. 10 Springfield City Commissioner meeting.
The father of Aiden Clark, Nathan Clark, didn’t mince words when he pleaded for people to stop using his son’s death as a political tool.
“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible. My son, Aiden Clark, was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti,” said Nathan Clark.
Aiden Clark was killed in a school bus crash in 2023 by Hermanio Joseph. Joseph was originally was Haiti and did not have a valid U.S. driver’s license, instead he had one from Mexico.
“You know, I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man,” Clark said to open his remarks. “I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt. But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone. The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces.”
It’s still unclear how exactly the rumors started, but it’s believed to have gained traction on a community Facebook page. One widely cited video to the claims is from an unrelated video in Canton. Posts claim the woman in the video is a Haitian immigrant. While the video does show a woman in Ohio being arrested for killing and eating a cat, the woman is Allexis Ferrell, 27, of Canton.
Canton Police Department Media Relations Officer Lt. Dennis Garren told VERIFY, a sister publication to 10TV, that “this incident has nothing to do with what is being reported in Springfield, Ohio.”
Further, Garren told VERIFY, “We have no reason to believe that she is not a U.S. citizen. She has lived in Canton for many years.”
Another circulated image shows a man carrying a Canada goose down the street. That image was posted to a Columbus-dedicated page on Reddit and the poster said it was taken along Cleveland Avenue. The man later told the Columbus Dispatch he wishes he never would have posted the image.
At the Aug. 27, Springfield City Commissioner meeting, Anthony Harris announced himself as a social media influencer. He spoke during the public comment mainly amount the driving of the Haitiain community, but then brought up an allegation of immigrants grabbing ducks from the city park, killing them and eating them. He did not provide any evidence during the meeting.
Rose-Thomar Joseph said now it’s just time to let the dust settle for her community.
“It shall pass and maybe in a couple of months, everything will be OK,” she said.