Mark Hughes Had A Right To Bear Arms. That Shouldn't Rob Him Of His Innocence.

One mistake could possibly result in there being a direct threat on Mark Hughes’ life.

Hughes is a black protestor who was wrongly labeled as one of the snipers from Thursday night’s attack on a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest that left five cops dead in Dallas, Texas, after a picture of him with a gun at the demonstration went viral.

The tweet with the image of Hughes was posted by the Dallas Police Department Thursday night and was not taken down until Friday afternoon. By that point, it had already amassed more than 40,000 retweets:

His brother, Cory Hughes, who also attended the protest against the recent cop killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, told CBS Dallas that the weapon wasn’t loaded. But that shouldn’t matter: Texas is an open-carry state and Hughes was simply exercising his Second Amendment right. Instead, he was wrongly labeled a killer and now has death threats made in his name.

“Y’all have my face on national news,” Hughes told CBS Dallas. “I’ve been getting death threats. It was persecution on me, un-rightly.”

Hughes was taken into questioning and later cleared with no charges pressed against him. But he is now a target to those who seek to penalize him for heinous crimes he did not commit. His image has been retweeted over 40,000 times and was shown on national live news broadcasts to people everywhere. That’s a frightening reality for a man who decided to speak out against the unjust deaths of black men by showing up to a peaceful protest.

Hughes told CBS Dallas that he immediately flagged down officers as soon as he learned he had been wrongly identified as one of the snipers. His brother, Cory, told KTVT that he advised his brother to “give that gun away” and that he witnessed him do it.

“He never thought that by exercising his right, he’d be plastered over the national media as a suspect,” Hughes said of his brother.

This misinformation has already caused a lot damage to Hughes, and we all have an obligation to help ensure his well-being by sharing the truth.

Please, for the sake of his safety, do your part.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the name of Mark’s brother. His name is Cory.