Ryan Lanza Facebook Hoax Leads To False Reports

A Ryan Lanza Facebook hoax has led to false reports online.

A number of media outlets reported Sunday about a Facebook message and a chat with the owner of a Ryan Lanza page on the popular social networking site. But the Facebooker turned out to be an impostor as the real Ryan Lanza denied making the statements on Facebook.

In the fake Facebook message, the person claiming to be Ryan Lanza defended his brother Adam Lanza, who was identified as the shooter in Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that left 20 children and 6 adults dead, against those who said he should "rot in hell."

"I am so tired of people blaming me for something my brother did. I love Adam, his [sic] my brother," he wrote. "But you have no right to call my brother names when he isn’t here no more. Just let my brother rest in peace. Please. Respect that."

The impostor also publicly grieved on the page.

"I will miss you bro," he wrote. "I will always love you as long as I live."

"This is a complete hoax," said the Lanza family in a statement issued through the spokesman, Errol Cockfield of the public relations firm Edelman. Cockfield said Ryan Lanza did not post the said messages on Facebook.