‘Eye for an eye’ viral posts about man shooting cop’s daughter as revenge are fake

By Yosi Yahoudai
Founder and Managing Partner

“Every single word of that post is false,” the Livonia School District confirmed to VERIFY.

Viral posts on social media claim that 45-year-old Douglass Barnes in Livonia, Michigan, shot and killed the daughter of Sergeant Mike McCaffrey of the Livonia Police Department as revenge for McCaffrey fatally shooting his son in 2020.

The story has been reposted and shared several times on different social platforms, gaining thousands of views. One commenter on a post wrote, “I’m from Detroit. I love [sic] 10 minutes from Livonia. I’ve never heard this story before. Wow”

THE QUESTION

Are posts about a man shooting a Michigan police officer’s daughter as revenge real?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, posts about a man shooting a police officer’s daughter as revenge are not real.

WHAT WE FOUND

Posts about a man named Douglass Barnes killing Samantha McCaffrey, the daughter of Sergeant Mike McCaffrey, at her high school prom as revenge for McCaffrey killing his son are not real.

The Livonia Police Department confirmed to VERIFY that the posts online are “completely fictitious,” and Sergeant Mike McCaffrey does not exist.

VERIFY conducted a reverse image search of the photo circulating on social media and only found the image in the context of this false claim. The picture does not appear anywhere else online. No other images of Douglass Barnes were found, and VERIFY was unable to find any evidence of someone with the name in Michigan.

While there is a Livonia School District in Michigan, there is no Livonia High School. The district confirmed to VERIFY that the school does not exist in Livonia, Michigan, and there is no student with the last name McCaffrey registered in the district.

“Every single word of that post is false,” the district said.

There are Livonia High Schools in Louisiana and New York, however, neither have reported a shooting at their schools.

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