Facebook gang rumor appears exaggerated

MOSES LAKE - A Facebook rumor about alleged gang initiations in Grant County appears to be an exaggerated version of a case Moses Lake police just investigated, according to the Moses Lake Police Department

The online posting warns people not to stop and help someone lying in the road because gang members will attack once the driver leaves his or her car.

"I suspect this is something that may have gotten exaggerated," Moses Lake Chief Dean Mitchell wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald.

A Dec. 2 incident in Moses Lake may have fueled the rumor. Moses Lake police investigated a case of a driver seeing a juvenile male lying in the road. When the driver stopped to help, the juvenile jumped up and ran away. Other youth were reportedly seen in the area and it appeared one was carrying a pipe. Officers searched the area and weren't able to find any of the people involved.

In response, the police department received about 12 calls and the Columbia Basin Herald received two calls about the incident and/or rumor. Mitchell said most of his department's calls were from the media.

"There was probably as many calls from the media as the general public," he said. "We would hear things, that people shouldn't drive down Yonezawa Boulevard. I had people ask me about it, if it was true someone got assaulted when they helped someone after getting out of their car." He said he replied no to the question.

The Grant County Sheriff's Office has not received any information related to the alleged threat, according to Undersheriff Dave Ponozzo.

Anyone with information about similar incidents may call Detective Juan Rodriguez at the Moses Lake Police Department, at 509-764-3887.

In March 2009, a gang initiation rumor was circulating in the area alleging three women would be shot in Walmart, according to March 20, 2009 Columbia Basin Herald article. At the time, there had been a shooting on Sunny Drive in Moses Lake and a murder in an Othello-area park.

That rumor started with a text message in Georgia, sent to a woman in Algood, Tenn. It was deemed a hoax by Grant County law enforcement.