Taylor Matejka’s brother Braden survived being shot in the back of the head during the horrific Las Vegas shooting at a country music festival last month that left 58 people dead and injured nearly 500.
In the weeks since the tragedy, Braden and his family have endured a new form of trauma – harassment from online trolls.
Taylor told CTV’s Your Morning from Gloucester, England on Thursday that his brother’s social media pages were flooded with hundreds of messages from conspiracy theorists accusing Braden of being a “crisis actor” and claiming the shooting never happened.
“I don’t know where they get this information from but they speak with this absolute certainty that they’re correct and it’s just not the case,” Taylor said.
Fed up with the name calling and insults, Braden deleted all of his online profiles. But that didn’t stop the abuse, however. Taylor has become the trolls’ new target.
“It’s like talking to a wall when you try and respond to these people,” he said.
For now, the family is coping with the harassment by ignoring it. Taylor said he has no plans to delete his Facebook account.
“I’m not going to be chased off by a few trolls that think they know what happened,” he said.
Although Braden is still unable to return to work, his brother said he’s physically recovering “quite well.”
