Yesterday. we were aghast to hear that a 20-year-old Louisiana woman named Sharmeka Moffitt claimed she had been attacked by three men and set on fire, burning the majority of her body, in a hate crime.
Last night, police confirmed that Sharmeka Moffitt actually faked the “attack,” scrawled the n-word and KKK on her car, and set herelf ablaze.
Moffitt had originally called 911 to claim she was exercising in a Winnsboro, Louisiana, park on Sunday evening when she was attacked by three men wearing white hoodies who set her on fire and scrawled “KKK” and a racial slur on her car. She was hospitalized in critical condition with third-degree burns over most of her body.
On Tuesday night, a police spokesperson confirmed that Sharmeka Moffitt lied about the attack, damaged her own car, and set herself on fire. “This was a disturbing case for all involved,” Franklin Parish Sheriff Kevin Cobb told a press conference. “All indications show this was a self-inflicted situation.”
Suffice it to say, we are relieved that the Ku Klux Klan — or any other hate group, or any other human being — was not behind this incident. I can’t be the only person whose stomach dropped reading the initial story.
Nevertheless, this acti is an extremely mentally ill, desperately-attention-seeking thing to do. Our thoughts are still with Moffitt and her family and we hope that she gets the help she needs.
[MSN via The New Star]
Contact the author of this post at Jessica@TheFrisky.com. Follow me on Twitter.
