Springfield, Ohio, has been a hub for immigrants, and particularly Haitian immigrants, in recent years — contrary to Vance’s tweet, they are here legally — but there’s no evidence at all for these viral claims.
In fact, Springfield’s deputy director of public safety and operations, Jason Via, dispelled the rumors to NPR last month.
“I think it’s sad that some people are using this as an opportunity to spread hate or spread fear,” Via told NPR. “We get these reports ‘the Haitians are killing ducks in a lot of our parks’ or ‘the Haitians are eating vegetables right out of the aisle at the grocery store.’ And we haven’t really seen any of that. It’s really frustrating. As a community, it’s not helpful as we try to move forward.”
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A separate story does involve alleged animal cruelty to a pet cat — but no apparent connection to immigration.
Nearly three hours away from Springfield, in Canton, Ohio, Allexis Telia Ferrell, 27, faces one charge of causing serious physical harm to a companion animal, a fifth-degree felony. Last month, police accused Ferrell of killing a cat, and also eating it “in a residential area in front of multiple people,” according to local outlet WLBT. Edited body camera footage of Ferrell’s arrest has circulated online, including from the popular far-right Malaysia-based commentator Ian Miles Cheong.
A spokesperson for the Canton Police Department, Lt. Dennis Garren, shared records related to Ferrell’s arrest with HuffPost. None of them mentioned the defendant’s citizenship status, though they did detail the grisly allegations against her. One offense report stated: “The Defendant did torture, kill, and eat a cat in a residental [sic] area in front multiple people.”
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Garren added, responding to a question about whether there had been any other animal cruelty reports recently: “We have no additional reports in the recent weeks.” Regarding Ferrell’s citizenship status, Garren said, “I could not confirm if she is but I haven’t heard that she is not a U.S. citizen.”
