Shaun King did not lie about how many kids he has

For the past year, Shaun King has written and shared more stories about police brutality and American injustice than any other journalist in the world. As his influence has grown, popular conservatives have attempted to discredit him any way they can. One line of attack is “Shaun King is a liar, so don’t believe anything he says about police brutality.”

Over a dozen articles and videos online currently state that Shaun has lied about how many kids he has. This has caused harm to his young children who are now forced to see their names and faces and legitimacy questioned all over the Internet. Shaun’s oldest children, 13 & 16 year old girls, are now asked about this by teachers, students, and even complete strangers who see these lies on the Internet. Here are the facts:

Shaun and his wife Rai have been together since 1996. Their niece, Taeyonna was born to a teenage mother in 1999. Even though Shaun and Rai were just kids teenagers themselves, they regularly cared for Taeyonna when she was just a baby.

Shaun and Rai had their first child, a girl, Kendi, in 2002.

Two years later, after a family crisis, they were granted legal custody of Taeyonna. She has lived with the King family for over ten years and calls Shaun & Rai “dad and mom.”

In 2006, Shaun and Rai had their first son, Ezekiel.

From 2008–2014, Shaun and Rai have had temporary custody, at varying points of time, of four different nieces and nephews — Elijah, Sakiah, Ethan, and Zayah.

In 2009, Shaun and Rai had their final biological child, a daughter named Savannah.

In 2013, from the day their niece, Zayah, was born, by court mandate, she lived with the King Family. One year later, Zayah went back to live with her biological mother. In February of 2015, Zayah came back to live with the King Family again. She calls Shaun and Rai “dad and mom.”

In the King household currently, are Shaun, Rai, Kendi, Tae, EZ, Savannah, Zayah, and Rai’s mother Toni. Never, once, have Shaun or Rai lied about how many kids they have. This lie about the King family was created to discredit Shaun’s life and work on police brutality and has created an enormous amount of stress on the King family — which was no doubt the intended purpose.

Also: Shaun King did not steal from the family of Eric Garner.

Also: Shaun King did not steal from the family of Tamir Rice.

The families and attorneys have joined Shaun in denouncing these lies.