"Nothing happened, and there was no victim … We dedicated a lot of resources to this — and don’t get me wrong, this is what we do — but we had guys going back and forth, looking for video and witnesses. And we couldn’t find anything," a police source told the New York Daily News on Wednesday.
2 dozen NYers in Grand Central saying #NotInOurCity — response to anti-Muslim attack on Yasmin Seweid. @WNYC pic.twitter.com/D6UuFC4sAi
— Arun Venugopal (@arunNYC) 4 декабря 2016 г.
Police said there were a lot of inconsistencies in Seweid’s story but it did not raise suspicions as it was typical for victims with psychological traumas. The situation, however, became more suspicious when she went missing last week. Finally Seweid admitted her guilt on Wednesday.
She is said to have made up the story because of family problems. Seweid’s father said he did not know that his daughter had lied about the attack.
The student is now under arrest and charged with filing a false report.
Many US media issued reports about the alleged hate crime without qualifiers such as "reportedly" and "alleged." During the election campaign Trump accused US media of being corrupt and fabricating stories.
According to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos for the BuzzFeed News media outlet, a total of 75 percent of US nationals believe fake news headlines when they read them.
