NEWTOWN, CT — The family of Victoria Soto spoke out after actor Scott Baio tweeted a photo that they say promotes conspiracy theories and opens their family to hate. The "Happy Days" actor retweeted a photo comparing the mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed during the violence in Charlottesville, to Soto's mother Donna Soto, who spoke after her daughter was one of the six educators and 20 children killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in 2012.

In a post on the Victoria Leigh Soto Facebook page, the family stated they tried to reach out to the actor via Twitter, but he blocked them. "We are deeply disappointed that someone who has such a large audience would use that audience to target victims families," reads the post. "We tried to reach out to Scott on Twitter and he blocked us. He is saying that he was just asking for thoughts, but what he did was encourage hateful behavior and targeted harassment against our family."



Baio, who played Chachi on "Happy Days," defended the tweet and accused "libs" of twisting his words after the tweet was posted. ,@Lololeeta I did NOT post. I retweeted. That's what's wrong with libs. They assume, spin, bend and lie.

— Scott Baio (@ScottBaio) August 25, 2017 One hour later, Baio tweeted an apology for retweeting the photo.

In retrospect, I wish I had thought longer about retweeting that conspiracy photo. I shouldn't have sent it. It was wrong. #Baio

— Scott Baio (@ScottBaio) August 25, 2017 An avid supporter of President Donald Trump, Baio repeatedly retweets articles and photos from questionable sources. However, the Soto family still expressed disappointment following the apology. The Soto family also voiced displeasure with the Megyn Kelly interview with Alex Jones, which several Sandy Hook families criticized for giving a known conspiracy theorist a voice. They expressed that the conspiracy theorist continue to affect their family.

"We are real people at the other end of these conspiracy theories and it hurts us, deeply," read the post.

