The American tourist who was picked up and almost lynched for allegedly s£xually abusing a boy on a balcony in Bogotá, Colombia, was reportedly “saving” the boy from choking, new report claims.
According to an updated report, the man was giving his adopted son the Heimlich manoeuvre. However, he was mistaken for abusing the child by an angry mob.
A video taken by a woman in northern Bogota appeared to show the Texas man holding a child on his balcony on Saturday, June 13.
In the viral clip, the woman screams out at him “He’s abusing the child, let him go!” (Read here).
Several others who witnessed this screamed for the police.
The man looks out at the people shouting and then ushers the child inside.
He was quickly surrounded by an angry mob trying to break into the apartment complex.
Protests formed outside the tower’s lobby so he couldn’t flee before authorities arrived.
Police were called and arrested him on suspicion of child abuse, escorting him through the baying crowds angered by child s£x tourism abuses in the country.
A video shared online showed police escorting the tourist out of his Airbnb accommodation.
But it was later revealed that the Texan had, in fact, been trying to stop his adopted son from choking to d£ath on food.
President Gustavo Petro said: “I must notify Colombian society because my commitment is to the truth, that the American citizen of Texan origin, captured in an apartment in northern Bogotá, apparently did not violate any of his adopted children in Colombia.
“He took him out to the balcony due to a clog from eating the food poorly. The images deceived the Colombians who went en masse to defend the child. Now we have indeed made victims of boys and girls. If these indications of the facts are confirmed, justice must grant him all his rights as a human being.”
Three children were found by authorities when they entered the suspect’s apartment and were taken to a medical centre to be evaluated, Mayor Carlos Galan said in a post on X.
Colombia’s state agency for child protection confirmed that the three children are now in its care.
The President said the children had now been made victims following the actions of the crowd.
He also warned that AI had riled up crowds and that Colombia would be vulnerable to manipulation from foreign powers, especially during elections.
Invoking Simon Bolivar, he added: “A good lesson in reality for those of us who can easily be collectively deceived by images that do not match reality, and that is precisely what the entire Colombian society lives through, bombarded by companies with artificial intelligence
“Here they transformed, as it seems to be the same case of the supposedly p@edophile American, reality into virtuality.
“Massive, collective deception through manipulation of consciousness. Colombians are exposed, like the whole world, to computer manipulation, and it is being fully used in these elections in Colombia.
“They want to dumb us down through artificial intelligence on information channels.
“I believe we have transformed into a p@edophile, someone who is not.”
An official report from the prosecutor’s office determined “there had been no s£xual abuse and no physical violence,” and “no evidence indicating criminal conduct,” according to the Colombian news outlet Noticias Caracol.