Tuesday morning's shooting has certainly stirred up emotions in many people, but one group says some of those emotions could lead to more violence.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference says messages posted on public forums about the shooting are raising concerns that retaliation could be next.
SCLC President Rufus Huggins says he is responding to what he calls community out cry against violence and racism.
"The main concern is the things they're reading in this that's trying to incite race into this situation downtown," said Huggins.
With a stack of comments printed from public forums in hand, Huggins pleaded with people to stop trying to make Tuesday mornings shooting a black and white issue.
He said, “This is what's going to cause this problem. What people are seeing in the paper and what they're pulling off the internet."
One comment on The Daily Reflector’s web site states, “Let the riots begin!"
Huggins says, "You've got a segment of the community, of the white community, that's trying to make a racial issue out of it. You have a segment of the black community that goes back to the 60's and the 50's when you had those things that happen that’s beginning to wonder is this going to happen now."
He says the SCLC in no way condones the actions of that morning; he simply does not want others to pay for one person’s mistake.
But there are some comments siding with Huggins.
One post on The Daily Reflector’s site states, "Those that bring race into it are part of the problem. Race should not have anything to do with this discussion."
While there's no way judge the credibility of anyone's written thoughts and Huggins says they have not received any threats, he wants to put a stop to potential problems before they happen.
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