ATLANTA -- A local Republican party official has been taking some heat after sharing a conspiracy theory that called last month's Parkland, Fla. shooting 'fake.'
Now members of the Cobb County Republican Party say they are facing some serious, dangerous threats.
Cobb County GOP Chairman Jason Shepherd is bearing the brunt of the nasty voicemails, Facebook messages, texts and emails.
"We'll turn them over to the sheriff," Shepherd said.
The firestorm came after Michael Davis, second vice chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party, shared a video that suggested the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month was a fraud.
The video starts with what appears to be a legitimate MSNBC news report on active shooter training at high schools in Florida. However, the voiceover shifts gears.
"This is a call for an uprising," the voice says. "Welcome to today's show."
The voiceover on the video begins commentary, suggesting these training drills could lead to bogus shootings with students acting.
"You don't think they could fake one of these things?" the voiceover asks.
11Alive's Natisha Lance tried to ask Davis why he made the post -- both in person and via telephone -- with no response.
Davis shared the video from Mike Nikolaou, whose Facebook profile says he lives in Athens, Greece.
Shepherd says he does not think the Florida shooting was faked.
"There's no doubt that this happened," Shepherd said.
Davis has since removed the Facebook post.
► Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the 11Alive app now.
Taking a quick look at other videos from Nikolaou shows additional conspiracy-driven videos, including others that suggest that the Parkland shooting was faked.
Conspiracy theories of this sort are not new.
According to the New York Times, when nine black teens integrated Central High School in Little Rock in 1954, many segregationists said they were paid protesters imported from other states.
The NAACP issued a denial at the time, calling the stories pure propaganda. Today, however, with the expansion of social media, conspiracy theories can spread quickly unless counteracted with the truth.