How Facebook post fanned flames

WHAT ONE FAMILY MEMBER SAID

Larissa Dos Santos, who said she was Edir Da Costa’s cousin, wrote on Facebook: ‘He was brutally beaten to death and left in the hospital nameless and in a coma. Little did we know the extent of the damage until we received the list of injures he sustained, which included a fractured skull, a fallen voice box and a ruptured bladder... Up till now we still don’t have the names of the arresting office (sic) that MURDERED my cousin.’

WHAT THE INVESTIGATORS SAY

The IPCC said: ‘We have contacted Mr Da Costa’s family to share with them the findings from the pathologist and we are now able to correct some misinformation that is being widely shared on social media. The preliminary post-mortem found that Mr Da Costa did not suffer a broken neck, or any other spinal injury during his interaction with the police. It found he did not suffer a broken collarbone or bleeding to the brain.

‘We are releasing this information out of concern at the rapid spread of false and potentially inflammatory information. Our robust investigation will seek to explain the circumstances around Mr Da Costa’s death. In the meantime, false information could have very dangerous consequences, so please don’t share it.’