“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.
The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party, NewsGuard reported.
Lee said she had no idea the post would become part of a rumor mill that would spiral into the national consciousness.
The anti-immigrant fervor in Springfield led to school and municipal building closures on Thursday and Friday after city officials received bomb threats.
Lee said that there are very real problems related to Springfield's population boom that caught the struggling city off guard.
Still, she never imagined that her Facebook post would set off a national news cycle.
“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield," she said. »
