Scott Baio Retweets Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory Meme, Apologizes After Victim’s Sister Confronts Him

Actor Scott Baio found himself apologizing for a tweet he made last week after retweeting a meme highlighting a popular conspiracy theory amongst members of the alt-right.

The meme, shared to Baio’s 220,000 followers, showed an image of Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed by a neo-Nazi supporter in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month, and Donna Soto, the mother of Vicki Soto, a teacher killed during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The meme suggested that both women were the same person, an actor hired to stage the horrific events.

Jillian Soto, the sister of Vicki Soto, took to the internet to request Baio remove the photo and issue an apology for belittling the grief of the families of the victims.

“We are deeply disappointed that someone who has such a large audience would use that audience to target victims [sic] families. We tried to reach out to Scott on Twitter and he blocked us,” the Team Vicki Soto Twitter account wrote last week.

“He is saying that he was just asking for thoughts, but what he did was encourage hateful behavior and targeted harassment against our family.”

The post ended, “We are real people at the other end of these conspiracy theories and it hurts us, deeply.”

Can someone please get this to @ScottBaio? He blocked us after we asked for an apology. pic.twitter.com/p4DVICKzYy

Baio, who denies having ever blocked members of the Soto family, issued a series of tweets directed at the family after spending most of the weekend defending his actions.

“In retrospect, I wish I had thought longer about retweeting that conspiracy photo. I shouldn’t have sent it. It was wrong,” Baio tweeted.

The Happy Days actor’s defense of his tweet centered around the idea that he doesn’t always agree with what he retweets and that sometimes he is just asking for thoughts.

As he told the Soto family, “My retweets are not endorsements, but having said that, this is one I wish I hadn’t sent.”

Soto’s family responded by pointing out that “regret is different than an apology.”

At the conclusion of the exchange, members of the Soto family invited Baio to come meet them, despite having propagated the conspiracy that their family member’s murder is fake.