Man dressed as Manchester Arena bomber for Halloween reported over offensive outfit
A man sparked anger and was reported to police after dressing up as the Manchester bomber for Halloween.
David Wootton posted photos of himself on Facebook wearing an Arabic-style head-dress and a T-shirt with ‘I love Ariana Grande’ written in red pen.
The 40-year-old also shared a picture of a black rucksack with ‘Boom’ and ‘TNT’ scrawled on it in big white letters.
He wrote on the post: ‘Bet I get kicked out of the Halloween party.’
A number of people on Facebook urged him to take it down, but it remained and he later posted: ‘Only went and won the best costume.’
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people, including children, and injured hundreds when he detonated his device in the foyer of the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.
But one former friend of Mr Wootton said they contacted police to report the costume as a hate crime, writes The Sun.
One person told the newspaper: ‘It makes me cry to think that someone would think this is remotely funny.’
Mr Wootton meanwhile said: ‘It’s not offensive. It was an adult fancy dress.’
However, he added that he didn’t mean any harm and deeply apologised if he had.
Last year a high school principal was suspended after he defended a student who came to classes on Halloween dressed as a German soldier and gave his peers a Nazi salute.
Joseph Powers, the principal of Jones College Prep High School, was removed from his duties pending an investigation by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) into the incident.
In a video, the student can be seen goose-step marching across a cafeteria table for a Halloween costume contest. When he arrived at the end of the table, the student turned and appeared to perform a Nazi salute to the crowd.
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