A shocking social-media video showing the graphic aftermath of a murder scene at a Dorchester barbershop in the US has inflamed the case, with the family of the victim requesting it be taken down.

The video, still seen in other posts, has gone viral, and people are demanding that the gruesome footage from inside Exclusive Barbershop be banished.

Dom Lucre, an Internet personality who posts as Dominick McGee, shared the video of the Labor Day crime scene Monday afternoon. Minutes before midnight, he posted that he had taken it down.

Lucre has roughly 1.4 million followers on X.

“DEVELOPING. The barbershop video has been removed at the request of the family,” he posted at 11.51pm on Monday.

The “graphic” video of the murder scene - a less than minute-long clip showing the victim dead in the barber chair and the other victim shot, bleeding on the floor - continued to make the rounds on Tuesday.

“The barbershop video needs to be taken off the Internet immediately ... that (expletive) just pissed me off,” an X user posted.

Another reacted, saying “I saw that barbershop video & that (expletive) should not (be) shared. It’s wild disrespectful.”

The calls for video removal started on social media almost immediately after the shooting.

Boston Police are continuing to investigate the double shooting, which the department responded to at about 12.55pm Monday. Exclusive Barbershop is located at 184 Washington St, in Dorchester.

No arrests have been made and the identity of the victim who died has not been released, pending the results of an autopsy, Sgt. Det. John Boyle told the Herald Tuesday afternoon.

The victim who died was pronounced dead at the hospital, BPD Deputy Superintendent Paul McLaughlin said at the area of the scene Monday. He urged the public to come forward and help solve the brazen slaying.

Lucre, in a statement to the Herald, defended posting the video.

“I will never say these videos shouldn’t be posted,” Lucre said. “The people have a right to see the truth if they choose to see what is truth. Videos that are graphic should have a section where children can’t see it. Outside of that, there are deaths that will happen each day and seeing death can prevent it in many ways.”

The video starts on the street, and the person recording the scene walks right inside, pointing the cell phone camera at the two victims before leaving the shop as fast as he entered it. The footage pauses momentarily for a chilling close-up of the man dead in the barber chair.

“We’ve got you. Take some deep breaths,” a single officer is quickly seen saying in the video as he attended to the injured man and put on purple surgical gloves. That victim was seen bleeding from the side of his head, talking on a cell phone.

Boston Police declined to comment on the video.

City Councilor Ed Flynn called it a “horrific and violent murder.”

“Although I haven’t seen the actual video,” he told the Herald. “I know it is extremely painful for the family of the deceased and the neighborhood as well. I have faith and confidence in the ongoing investigation by the Boston Police.”

The Monday murder follows an Aug 24 shooting that killed Jashun Colley, a 38-year-old Roxbury man, down the road from Exclusive Barbershop, in the area of 159 Washington St.

Ruth Zakarin, CEO of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, told the Herald that she tends “not to watch videos of such things” and that survivors and families of victims should decide how the footage is distributed, if it’s distributed at all.

It is unclear who took the video from the scene Monday and who initially released it on social media.

“When incidents like this happen, it’s obviously traumatic for the family and anyone who witnessed it, but it’s traumatic for the entire community for so many reasons,” Zakarin said. “Now there’s this video that’s circulating and people may come across it inadvertently. It brings up a lot of feelings for folks.”

Under X’s “deceased individuals” policy, users may be asked to remove images or videos “taken at the point of, immediately before, or after someone’s death” if the company receives a request from a family member or “authorised representative.”

Repeat violations could lead to an account being permanently suspended.

“Sharing images or videos of a deceased individual can cause serious distress to the deceased’s family and can also negatively impact the well-being of others who view this content,” the policy states.

Whether content violates social media policies is separate from whether it goes against the First Amendment, said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition.

Silverman said he did not know the specifics of the video taken at the Dorchester barbershop.

“What if instead of a barbershop crime scene, you had graphic images of casualties on a battleground or children who died during wartime? These types of graphic images are really difficult to view and some would argue you shouldn’t be publishing them at all,” Silverman said.

“But you certainly, under the First Amendment, have the right to because they are in the public’s interest” he added, “they’re newsworthy, and presumably they were obtained under the law.”

 - TNS