A photo of a black man in a camouflage shirt with an AR-15 strapped across his chest was widely circulated after US police in Dallas posted it on Twitter, identifying him as a suspect immediately after a sniper attack that left five police officers dead.
After police interrogated Mark Hughes, an open-carry activist from Arlington, Texas, the department tweeted that he was no longer a "person of interest".
The photo of him was taken down, but not before it was retweeted hundreds of times.
Hughes told Dallas TV station KTVT that he "flagged down a police officer" immediately after finding out he was a suspect. He said police lied during a 30-minute interrogation, telling him they had video of him shooting.
Videos posted online show Hughes walking around peacefully during the shooting and later turning over his gun to a police officer.
Hughes told CBS 11 on Friday that he was "defamed" by police and that the photo has garnered him "thousands" of death threats on Facebook.
His lawyer, Paul Saputo, said Hughes hasn't "ruled out" the possibility of taking legal action against Dallas police.
