Denver Fox affiliate KDVR has taken down a report about an Italian man who was detained for questioning after rival KUSA uncovered details that indicate the story was a hoax.
“We believe we were intentionally misled by someone who misrepresented herself not only to the news media but to two of our sources on the story, an NRA board member from Colorado and a nationally-recognized Second Amendment attorney, both of whom as recently as yesterday were standing by the story,” KDVR news director Ed Kosowski told TVSpy in a statement. “These sources now tell us they believe they were misled by the woman. We are working on a follow-up story that will thoroughly explain what happened.”
The KDVR report, which aired Saturday, claims Daniele Perazzi, the grandson of a “prominent Italian gunmaker,” was questioned by law enforcement after “a taxi driver mistook him for a terrorist.” Hendrik Sybrandy sources the man’s U.S. attorney, who was not identified by name. KDVR reported the attorney said “that her client was scared during the incident because he’s not familiar with U.S. gun laws.”
KUSA said they received “numerous emails inquiring as to why the story wasn’t being broadly covered.” During the NBC affiliate’s investigation of the story, the gun company, the Adams County Sheriff’s office and the taxi company denied the incident happened, KUSA reported Tuesday night.
“The company says there’s no grandson named Daniele and they didn’t have a representative in Denver last week, either,” Kyle Clark said in the KUSA report.
KUSA also identified KDVR’s source as a Colorado woman named Korrine Aguirre. “There was a comment that I had made the other day that I probably shouldn’t have made,” Aguirre told KUSA. “Apparently that blew up a lot bigger than it was supposed to.”
The original story was removed from KDVR’s website Wednesday afternoon. TVSpy hears that KDVR staffers met Wednesday morning to review the report.
Watch both the KDVR report and the KUSA report after the jump.
Full text of KDVR’s report published online:
DENVER — An executive with a prominent gun manufacturer is on his way back to his native Italy after a taxi driver mistook him for a terrorist on Saturday.
Daniele Perazzi took a cab to the Colorado Gun Collectors Association trade show at the Denver Merchandise Mart around noon.
He had seven shotguns at the time and apparently the guns scared Perazzi’s cab driver who called police and told them he’d just dropped off a terrorist.
Perazzi was taken in for questioning by law enforcement, but was released a short time later.
Perazzi’s U.S. attorney told FOX31 Denver that her client was scared during the incident because he’s not familiar with U.S. gun laws and thought he’d done something wrong.
She said legal action is a possibility in the future.
Perazzi is president of the Italian company Perazzi shotguns. The company is known for making hunting and sporting models of shotguns.
Just this past week, some Denver taxi drivers were honored for reporting incidents while on duty.
A program called Taxis on Patrol (TOPS) encourages cabbies to report suspicious activity while they’re on the clock.