Was Tyreek Amir Jacobs, 18, Murdered Over Air Jordan Concords or Just a Hoax?

The Internet is abuzz with claims that an 18-year-old boy from Washington D.C. named Tyreek Amir Jacobs was killed in Maryland Thursday while shopping for Air Jordan Concords. But was he really murdered or is it a hoax?

While multiple incidents of violence stemming from unruly crowds occurred across the nation upon the release of the coveted Air Jordan Concords, social media Web sites like Facebook and Twitter are reporting that Jacobs was murdered shopping for the sneakers. Multiple Facebook groups have photos of the boy inscribed with his birthday and date of death, Dec. 22, 2011.

However, police in Washington D.C., Maryland and the Virginia area have no records of any teens being murdered for the Air Jordans.

Nothing like that has happened here, and I hope we would know, a Montgomery County police official told the Baltimore Sun.

While police officials are unaware of the incident, some hundred thousand users on Facebook have joined the conversation in the eight groups dedicated to Tyreek Amir Jacobs, though the murder was never confirmed.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the photo of Jacobs was stolen from the NAACP's Legal Defenders blog, which was posted back in October 2010. According to Lee Daniels, communications director for the legal defense fund, the report seems to be a hoax.

The blog post exploded this morning, and we were immediately suspicious about the story, Daniels told the Baltimore Sun. It appears to be just another Internet phenomenon.
The story, however, continued to spread, notably when Darren Rovell, a sports business reporter for CNBC, posted about it to his 150,000 followers on Twitter, according to the Baltimore Sun.

One group, RIP Tyreek AMIR Jacobs Killed For Jordan Concords, served not only as a memorial page for the nearly 30,000 users, but a place to question the validity of the story, which has no details of when or how Jacobs was murdered.

I don't care if yall think this fake or not, STOP disrespecting my step brother by commenting with unnecessary wall post if you got nothing nice to say please dont say nothing at all RIP TEEK TEEK IMA MISS U BRO LOVE U 4 LIFE! the alleged creator of the page wrote on Friday.

A few hours later, the user wrote, For all you dumb people who think I would lie about my step brothers murder, NBC just confirmed it,and this is my last status update, thank you for those who didn't criticize may god bless your soul.

The new model of the Air Jordan Concords caused frenzied shoppers to riot Thursday night when they went on sale at retailers nationwide. Reports immediately emerged as shopping malls were overcrowded and customers trampled over, multiple incidents of assault reported and police using pepper spray to subdue crowds.

Nike began the Air Jordan fad, now estimated at a worth of $1 billion annually, in 1985 when a replica of the red, white and black high-top worn by Michael Jordan emerged and immediately became a hit.

The Air Jordan Concords are a reissue of sneakers from 1996 that cost $180.