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Editor: Colin Miller

Twitter Evidence in White House Shooting

This weekend’s Washington Post had an eye opening story on a previously unreported shooting back in a 2011.  Among the revelations was that someone posted a tweet about the shooting at the time.  From the story:

A woman in a taxi stopped at a nearby stoplight immediately took to Twitter to describe the actions of “this crazy guy.”

“Driver in front of my cab, STOPPED and fired 5 gun shots at the White House,” she wrote, adding, “It took the police a while to respond.”

If the case had gone to trial (the shooter pleaded guilty), I wonder if this tweet would be admissible.  The caps could support an excited utterance.  Possibly also a present sense impression, although seems to be a significant time lag between the shooting portion of the tweet and the tweeting.