Cops probe first Twitter murder

POLICE in the US are investigating what they believe is the first murder carried out because of messages posted on Twitter.

Detectives in New York say a deadly confrontation between two friends was caused by angry comments posted on the micro blogging site.

They are set to serve legal papers ordering the Twitter site to get the messages that were sent between alleged killer Jameg Blake and victim Kwame Dancy.

Criminal experts said it would be the first time the 140 word postings would be used as evidence in a murder trial.

Prosecutors will use the postings to show the increasingly hostile relationship between the men.

According to police, Blake, 22, and Dancy, 22, had spent weeks sending each other angry messages via their Twitter accounts.

The pair, childhood friends, lived on the same floor of a high rise block of flats but had fallen out over a girl.

Police sources said the pair had sent each other spiteful messages on their Twitter accounts.

Other friends joined in the row by adding to the Tweets.

Police said hours before Dancy was blasted in the neck with a shotgun blast he sent his victim a Tweet which said: "N------s is looking for u don't think I won't give up ya address for a price betta chill asap!"

Police said Dancy, who was training as a nurse, died after being shot as he left his home in Harlem, New York on December 1st.

The murder weapon was later found abandoned in Central Park along with a spent shell.

Two days after the killing Blake took to his Twitter account to post the message: "R.I.P. Kwame".

Dancy's mother, Madeline Smith, said she was stunned to learn that Tweets between the friends could have led to murder.

"That's not a reason to shoot somebody," she said.

"That's crazy. I don't know what's going on with that Twitter thing."

Smith said her son and Blake had been friends since childhood.

"They were good friends, that's the sad part about it," she said.

"Obviously, I didn't know him like I thought I did. I just want to ask him. 'Why? How could you?'

Blake has been charged with first degree murder.