TikTok
- 21-year-old Cameron Herrin was recently sentenced to 24 years in prison for vehicular homicide.
- A cult following has grown on Twitter and TikTok, offering their support to him.
- Some believe he is "too cute" to spend so long incarcerated.
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In 2018, a mother and daughter died after being hit by a car Cameron Herrin was driving. Herrin was sentenced to 24 years in prison in April after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide. Now, a cult following on TikTok is voicing its support for him.
Jessica Reisinger-Raubenolt, 24, and her 20-month-old daughter Lillia were crossing the street on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, Florida, when they were struck by Herrin's car and died. Herrin was participating in a street race at the time, and at one point was driving at 100mph, Tampa Bay Times reported.
Since his sentencing, a number of fan accounts have sprung up, pleading that Herrin deserves a second chance. Some say he is "too cute" to be incarcerated for so long. Herrin's own TikTok account has 2 million followers, but there is no content available to view.
TikToks relating to Herrin have racked up 2.2 billion views on the platform, while videos with the hashtag #justiceforcameron have been viewed 26.1 million times. The TikToks mostly show Herrin in court, often with video footage and stills of him crying. They capture the look on his face when he was given his sentence, and the brief moment he took down his mask to drink some water.
Accounts dedicated to Herrin's cause have also appeared on Twitter and Instagram, and there is a Change.org petition currently circulating to reduce his sentence which has been signed over 28,000 times.
TikToker Hannah Kosh, who has 594,000 followers, posted a video about the movement on August 4, which has been watched 2.2 million times. She explained that some people believe Herrin's sentence is too harsh, and shared some of the comments that they have posted under various TikToks.
One simply reads "not a killer," while another said they hope he is forgiven because he "looks innocent."
"Poor boy," the comment reads. "He doesn't do it on purpose."
Others have commented on Herrin's looks, saying "omg his eyes" and "You're too cute."
There has been speculation that some of the social media accounts on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram are bots set up to jump on a trending topic. The Tampa Bay Times reported that some of these accounts appear to be based in the Middle East, and use a mixture of Arabic and English, adding that some online misinformation experts saw similarities with fake accounts paid to influence campaigns.
However, others appear to be based on genuine opinion. Herrin's mother told the Tampa Bay Times some seem to have "an unhealthy obsession" with her son, sending letters and ringing her up in the middle of the night. She said while the support was comforting at first, things turned "scary" when her family members were stalked and Herrin's fiancé had her social media accounts hacked.
-ساره (@GKI4AGk3KcY6Vro) August 10, 2021
This isn't the first time TikTok has developed an obsession with a young person facing prison. In May 2020, teenagers made fan Instagram pages for Peter Manfredonia, a 23-year-old University of Connecticut student suspected of double murder.
Insider's Kat Tenbarge reported the morbid "stan" accounts seemed to be an ironic in-joke among fans of Nicki Minaj and the controversial social media star Peaches.
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.