US - Innocent Man Wrongly Named As Sniper Suspect

There has been outrage on social media after Dallas police wrongly identified an innocent man as a suspect in the Dallas shooting.

Twitter users have demanded that The Dallas Police Department takes down an image of the man which it posted on its Twitter account late Thursday.

It shows him wearing a camouflage shirt and holding a rifle and is captioned: "This is one of our suspects. Please help us find him!" 

The image was immediately broadcast by news networks around the world, sparking a manhunt for the alleged suspect, identified as Mark Hughes.

It wasn't long, however, before many on social media began to question Dallas Police.

A number of people posted videos of him walking around peacefully during the Dallas shooting, before turning his gun over to police.

Many were also quick to point out that openly carrying the firearm was not an offence in the United States.

Mr Hughes later told Dallas TV station KTVT he "flagged down a police officer" immediately after finding out he was a suspect. 

He said police lied during a 30-minute interrogation, telling him they had video of him shooting.

He was later released without charge.

The tweet, which remains live, has so far received over 41,000 retweets.

Washington Post reporter Wesely Lowery tweeted: "We implore everyone to head over to @DallasPD and report any images of #MarkHughes to twitter for removal. He's in danger. thx."

Another Twitter user wrote: "Shouldn't @DallasPD delete this Tweet? Mark Hughes has been questioned & released."

Five police officers were killed in Thursday's shooting, which took place as hundreds of people gathered to protest over fatal police shootings this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St Paul, Minnesota.

One sniper has now been identified as 25-year-old Micah Johnson. 

He told a police negotiator he was upset at white people and wanted to kill them, especially white officers, before he was blown up by a robot bomb.