Twitter posts could have led to murder

Police in the United States are investigating what they believe is the first murder fuelled in part by messages posted on social networking site Twitter.

And for the first time ever, reports the Daily Mail, 140-word maximum Twitter postings could be used as evidence in a future trial by prosecutors to demonstrate the increasingly hostile relationship between the two men before the shooting.

Only hours before Kwame Dancy, 22, was shot in the neck, he allegedly wrote to his friend Jameg Blake, 22: 'N------s is looking for u don't think I won't give up ya address for a price betta chill asap!'

Their online dispute, spurred on by comments from other people, exploded out of cyberspace and onto the streets of Harlem.

Dancy, who was studying to be a nurse, was killed across from where he grew up with his father.

The two former mates, friends since childhood, are said to have fallen out over a girl.

- NZ HERALD STAFF