The stepson of billionaire Hamish Harding—one of the five members of the doomed Titan crew—became a beacon of online hate for his behavior on social media as rescuers searched for the submersible 12,000 feet underwater.
Brian Szasz, 37, has since deleted his Twitter, calling the whole ordeal a “nightmare.”
“This whole situation is a fucking nightmare though, everything about it,” Szasz said in an Instagram Story on Wednesday night. “Especially what Hamish is going through down there. It is just fucking god awful.”
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After days of searching, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that a debris field found 1,600 feet from the wreck of the Titanic was the remains of the submersible, which had suffered a catastrophic implosion.
For Szasz, the backlash started earlier this week after he posted that he was attending a Blink-182 concert on Monday. The national headlines that followed weren’t positive. Seemingly everyone, even rapper Cardi B, was slamming Szasz for rocking out amid the frantic search for his stepdad and the lost sub.
Szasz responded Wednesday, calling Cardi B a “complete bitch” who “has no idea what’s going on.”
“They’re not feeling sorry that my mom has to take care of two kids, not really giving a fuck that my stepdad, [there’s] 99 percent chance he’s dead,” Szasz said in his Instagram Story blasting the rapper. “Cardi B, fucking grow up. Get some class. You’re tasteless.”
Szasz went on to defend his decision to attend the concert as a coping mechanism to take his mind off the news.
“Haven’t slept in days,” Szasz said. “It’s not about me. Obviously just too worried about my mom and the situation so I’m not rocking out or whatever they’re trying to accuse me of doing.”
A couple of hours earlier, Szasz caught more flack for flirting with an Only Fans model just minutes after asking his Twitter followers to “please keep my family in your prayers.”
“I always talk to her on Twitter,” Szasz said after deleting the Twitter account. “We have a playful back-and-forth. She wished me well. She wished my family well.”
But beyond Szasz’s unusual social media behavior this week, there’s a history of more disturbing conduct. Szasz was detained last year for cyberstalking charges after members of the “rave” community outed him for sending an excessive number of DMs to ravers on Twitter, as well as posting threats and other dangerous messages to women who rejected him.
While in prison, it was revealed that Szasz has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism, according to a court filing obtained by the media.
Szasz even referenced a “legal situation” in his slew of Instagram Stories that prevented him from heading to the East Coast for the rescue efforts.
“Believe it or not, I have about $100 to my name,” Szasz said. “I can’t go out to the ocean. I have a legal situation keeping me here as well. I can’t get on a flight. I don’t have a passport.”
Amid the hate, Szasz emphasized his powerlessness over his stepdad’s disappearance.
“The submarine is stuck at the damn Titanic,” he added. “There’s nothing I can do for the situation at all.”
