How a Facebook Meme Beat Everyone to the Week's Biggest Story

• WARNING: A graphic image is featured in this article

On Monday, May 16, the second-most read story on New England's network of Patches was a Stoneham police log. Police logs, often brief accounts of documented crime and police activity from law enforcement, rarely crack Patch's top 50 stories on any given day.

More curious was why this particular log was a destination for thousands and thousands of readers - it was from nearly three years ago, originally posted in November 2013.

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That same Monday, a graphic meme started to circulate around Facebook purporting to identify a man who allegedly sent his girlfriend to the hospital with a vicious beating. It also purported to feature the alleged victim both before and after the violence.

The text suggesting users to "SHARE THE HELL OUT OF THIS" was well received; Hammy T.V, a self-described comedy/pranks page on Facebook, had the image shared over 46,000 times. The image came from the family of the alleged victim (Patch does not identify victims of domestic violence), and according to NECN, the woman gave permission for it to be posted to raise awareness for domestic violence.

Skip ahead to Tuesday at approximately noon, when the District Attorney's office released the following statement:

James Armato, 27, of Stoneham, was arraigned yesterday in Malden District Court and charged with strangulation, attempted murder, assault and battery on a household or family member, assault, and resisting arrest, in connection with an alleged incident that took place at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 15. Judge Lee Johnson ordered the defendant held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Monday, May 23. These charges are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The prosecutor assigned to this case is Assistant District Attorney Andrew Boulanger.

Patch immediately visited Malden District Court to retrieve police records regarding the case and wrote the account of Armato, the former MMA fighter who was charged with attempted murder of his girlfriend in an alleged night of drunken violence over the weekend. Other outlets started to pick up on the connection between the meme and the story as the afternoon wore on, and the arrest of the man in the meme became Patch's most popular story of the week.

So what about that Stoneham police log from 2013? The very last entry in it is about James Armato, 25, of Stoneham. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and assault and battery of a different woman.

One full day before Armato's story became the biggest of the week, social media sleuths had already beaten every outlet to it.

To contribute to a GoFundMe account for the alleged victim, click here.

Photo courtesy of GotCredit via Flickr