Black Lives Matter Minneapolis was forced to apologize Tuesday after the group fanned false hate crime rumors that St. Paul police had hanged a man from a tree.

Michael Bringle committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Indiana Mounds Park in St. Paul, the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office confirmed. But his body was found around 6:00 a.m. Tuesday by a passerby, Davion Gatlin, who took and posted pictures to Facebook — photos the Black Lives Matter activists used to insinuate that police had brutally murdered a black man.

“This is just a few blocks from where my auntie live I was just at this damn park two nights ago! This so damn foul!! I’m so fed up with this s***! They still killing us and we still killing each other! #MakeGoViral,” Gatlin captioned the photos.

A Black Lives Matter St. Paul Facebook page posted a statement Tuesday that a black man had been “lynched,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

St. Paul Police Sgt. Mike Ernster called the post “disgusting,” and hours later Black Lives Matter Minneapolis had issued an apology to Mr. Bringle’s family.

“As more information came out & Mr.Bringle’s family came forward it became clear that this was an unfortunate incident caused by mental illness,” the group wrote. “We are sorry if our post offended anyone & hope that folks see we were simply echoing the questions and concerns that community members had.”

Mr. Bringle’s sister said it was “devastating” to learn the news of her brother’s death from Facebook.

“To me, hearing about it on Facebook was so devastating,” Bringle’s sister, Kelly Brown-Rozowski, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “This isn’t something to be shared in such a tragic way; he should be remembered for what a great man he was.”

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson