If you've been following the developments into Tuesday's shooting on Madison Avenue, then you know that an altercation occurred between an Akron Police Officer and a man suspected of tampering with vehicles. In the end, the officer fired a single shot and hit the 25-year-old suspect, who went to surgery and survived.
Those are the basic facts.
So why .. why .. why did people call our newsroom telling us that we "had to hurry because Akron Police just shot and killed a 14-year-old boy" and "there's a body still out there in the street"?
Those calls certainly made us drive faster to the scene as it sounded like the case was much more severe than we first heard.
When I arrived on scene, some of the first people who approached me recited the same story about the dead teen. Others told me that the boy had been the victim of a second shooting .. that something had happened during the canvass after the initial shooting and that police had shot a second person, in this case a teen, and killed him.
Unreal.
After about 30 minutes on scene, a woman came up to a Channel 3 videographer and me .. and began telling us that we needed to shift our camera to get video of the dead teen's body around the corner. When we told her that it wasn't true, that the man who was shot was in his 20's and that he was alive at the hospital, she looked at us like we were withholding information.
I know that rumors can float around a crime scene, and sometimes those folks like to push that info to the reporters on scene.
But in this case, I'm convinced that most of the folks who said these things were hoping that I would run them on the air as breaking news and make a bad situation worse. Some clearly have agendas when it comes to their view of police.
Akron's Police Auditor, Phil Young, was on scene. I didn't get a chance to chat with him, but he was out there doing his job. Plenty of APD supervisors were there too. So why don't we let the investigation tell us what happened without trying to stir up more tension with a bogus story?
Again .. rumors are natural and mistakes with rumors can happen. But for those who knowingly spread false information about something that's this serious, you should be ashamed.
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5 comments:
You are right Eric
People do have agendas when it comes to their view of police. I think a lot of people just want or make the police look like they did something wrong. The truth is APD needs to continue to shoot and teach these crooks that you won't get away with stuff in Akron.
It's about time!
Eric, I also was on scene working for that other station in town (its between yours and 6) I was there very early on and at one point I heard that he had been tasered, shot, and killed, people were even asking why they were leaving his body in the yard. I was in ah of the rumors that were flying and can't believe that people that "saw nothing" knew so much!
I almost wish it were mandatory for every citizen to ride with the APD for at least one weekend night, especially in the summer. I truly believe it would change so many minds.
People will make up any kind of story in this city to get on the news and make the police look bad>
Some people in Akron can't stand when the police shoot someone for doing something wrong. What they just want the police to stand by and watch crimes happen?
APD need to shoot more and get these thugs off our streets!
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