The post claiming this happened in Hereford was shared in a local Facebook group with more than 25,000 members, along with two photos of a child with bruises and cuts on his face.
It says: “This little boy approximately 2 years old was found last night walking behind a home here in #hereford Deputy Tyler Cooper saved him and took him to the Police Station but no one has an idea where he lives, the neighbours don’t know him or how he got there. He says his mom’s name is Ella. Let’s flood our feeds so that this post may reach his family, thank you.”
A separate post claiming the same thing happened in King’s Lynn in Norfolk is almost identical, and includes the same photos.
Neither post is true. The force responsible for Hereford, West Mercia Police, told Full Fact that there’s no record of an incident matching the description in the post, and that it doesn’t have an officer called “Tyler Cooper”. Norfolk Constabulary confirmed to us that it doesn’t have a “deputy” rank or an officer called “Tyler Cooper”.
