A viral post has been trending with a photo of a man identified as Lawrence Kesseh Williams as the perpetrator of the gruesome accident that occurred at the Unity Party headquarters on Monday night.
On Monday, supporters of the Unity Party gathered at the party’s headquarters to celebrate following the pronouncement of Amb. Joseph Boakai as winner of the Presidential runoff election. According to media reports, a vehicle ran into the crowd leaving three persons reportedly dead and several others injured.
Following the incident, an image of a man was shared on Facebook with several posters claiming that the man in the photo is Lawrence Kesseh Williams — the person who drove the car that caused the accident.
The Claim
Among several others who made the claim is a Facebook user identified as Peter Bleedi Jr. He claimed that Williams is a supporter of the Unity Party and had a brake failure that led to the accident.
“Lawrence Kesseh Williams manages a renowned Printing prize in the famous Duport Road community named the Miracle Printing Enterprise. According to him he had break failure that led to the damages of lives and several persons wounded. Unity Party supporters should stop blaming operatives of this government and objectively look at the existential nature of this crime.”
Another person, David S. Dukuly Jr. claimed that the act was done by Lawrence Kesseh Williams. Dukuly posted: “Lord we give you all the praise for saving the name of our party and SG. This act was done by a UPist by the name Lawrence Kesseh Williams”.
Rating Justification
We verified the identity of the man in the Facebook posts and found that he is not Lawrence Kesseh Williams, a UP supporter but rather Lawrence K. Williams.
To fact check this claim, we did a keyword search of Lawrence Kesseh Williams on Facebook and found a post in Fries FM where “Lawrence Kesseh Williams”, is refuting the claims that he is the driver of the car that caused the accident.
He wrote to Facebook: “I’m “NOT” the one who did the act. Will clear the AIR very soon.”
We also found a Facebook post by the campaign spokesperson of the Unity Party, Mo Ali, who said Lawrence Kesseh Williams is a supporter of the Unity Party and not the one who drove the vehicle into the partisans.
Mo Ali wrote: “Lawrence Kesseh Williams is a supporter and partisan of the UP. He was not the one who drove the car into the celebrating UP partisans last night. We’ve learned that the guy who drove the car among our people is Lawrence K. Williams. Investigations are ongoing.”
To further verify the identity of the person in the post, we found a video on the Liberia National Police Facebook page dated November 21, 2023 in which Police Spokesman Moses Carter said the alleged perpetrator name is Lawrence K. Williams – a resident of Duport Road.
We further examined Facebook photos of Lawrence K. Williams, the man in the video and found that he is not the same as Lawrence Kesseh Williams. We found that the two individuals are distinct even though they have similar first and surname.
Conclusion
Based on the research conducted by our fact-checking desk, we therefore conclude that the claim is false. The alleged perpetrator is identified as Lawrence K. Williams, as confirmed by the Liberia National Police, and not Lawrence Kesseh Williams.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content