Police didnt identify NYC subway victim for over a week. A fake name spread NBC New York [Video]

It took police more than a week to publicly identify Debrina Kawam, 57, as the woman who was fatally set on fire in a New York subway train last month. But on the internet, it took just hours for a false name to begin spreading.

In posts that circulated widely on social media after Kawam’s death on Dec. 22, users claimed without evidence that the victim was a 29-year-old named “Amelia Carter.” These posts ricocheted across platforms, often accompanied by an image of a young woman that experts say may have been generated by artificial intelligence.

It’s not clear who first made up the claim or why. But many sharing it highlighted the immigration status of the man charged in Kawam’s death — federal immigration officials say he is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally — while accusing the media of refusing to name the “beautiful young white woman.”

Nathan Walter, an associate professor at Northwestern University who …