Almost five hours later, at 5:53, the photo was then pulled from distribution. A message went out in all-caps to outlets saying that the AP "HAS BEEN UNABLE TO CONFIRM" that the images were related to the shooting, and recommended the removal of the photo.

Today, Colford explained that decision further. The problem wasn't just that the photo could not be confirmed to be related, but that the image desk decided that it was "unrelated to the violence at the Navy Yard," he told The Atlantic Wire in an email. Unverified and unrelated are two very distinct and important conclusions.

The tweeter of those photos, too, expressed remorse about the decision to post the photos. His follow-up pleas to exercise caution received much less attention than the ones that were continually shared across social media. Andres, the actual photographer, later in the day spoke on MSNBC about taking the pictures while driving into work and spoke with some hesitancy about the reason that the man was on the ground.

"I don't know what happened to the man, I don't know if it's related. All I know is that people just began running up to him and tending to him. ... I would say around where the man was laying down there was definitely panic as people were trying to get to work ... When I first saw the man no one was tending to him, and just in those two seconds a few people started running up to him. Maybe they were nurses or doctors and not at work yet or whatnot, but they were definitely tending to him. And I don't know exactly what happened to him but he was just on the floor, and it was just sort of unfolding right there."

Though he took them near the shooting, the photographer did not know the exact relation of the photos to the actual events and victims. Still, the photos were quickly snapped up and passed around by many in the media, some with a disclaimer and many more without one.

There were some warning signs about the relevance of the photos, especially to those familiar with the geography of the area. The CVS pharmacy in the background of the photo is a few blocks away from Building 197, where the shooting took place — 0.4 miles to be exact, according to Google Maps. How did a gunshot victim end up there? Mandy Jenkins of Digital First Media tweeted her doubts: "Still pretty confused as to how a wounded man was dragged to CVS from the Navy Yard, it's at least 3 blocks away." Other questions remained, as well: Why was there no sign of blood? Would people have picked up and moved a gunshot victim to the ground on a concrete street corner?

One of the key questioners of the photo's relevance was none other than Reddit, the site who did some aggressive sleuthing during the Boston Bombing, much of it incorrect and potentially destructive. One of the photos tweeted by Hogan was placed on Reddit in a highly upvoted post titled "First victim of the Navy Yard shooting at the CVS one block away." But in the comments, the top-voted response attempted to debunk the photo. "I work one block from the yard- word of mouth is that this victim had a heart attack and is unrelated (except perhaps by stress) to the shooting," wrote user ACFCrawford.