A renowned heart doctor falsely accused Black Lives Matter protesters of threatening and attacking his daughter and her boyfriend.
According to BuzzFeed News, Andrea Natale sent the now-deleted tweets out on Sunday (Sep 13). He is now issuing an apology after his tweet was found out to be a lie. “My daughter called in tears,” he tweeted. “She was driving [with] her boyfriend in Baltimore & their car was attacked by a group of BLM. It was damaged & her BF was beaten.”
“She filmed it & called the police, but they cannot do anything [because] they are African-American,” he continued. “Is this the America we want?”
“This is the America that the media and the politicians have created,” one woman replied to the tweet.
“It is very sad we are allowing this to happen!” responded the doctor.
Audio and bodycam footage from the local police department refuted Natale’s claims. His daughter and her boyfriend reportedly got into a minor altercation with “squeegee kids,” which is a nickname for people who panhandle in Baltimore, Maryland by offering to wash car windows.
The daughter’s boyfriend exited his vehicle to tell the “squeegee kids” to stop washing his car windows. He told them that he had a knife. One of the men responded, “I’ve got a fucking knife, too,” and the incident ended without any physical contact.
Natale, who currently serves as executive director of Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David’s Medical Center, has since issued an apology. “I sincerely apologize for a tweet I posted this weekend,” he said. “I was worried about my daughter, and I jumped to a conclusion based on the information I had at the time. I’ve dedicated my entire professional career to healing people from all backgrounds, and I regret that my words were misinterpreted and created hurt and pain. It was not my intention.”
Check out the deleted tweet below.