http://www.news8austin.com/content/...asp?ArID=186506
TOP STORIES
APD press release creates false images of man's slaying 6/21/2007 10:31 AM By: Reagan Hackleman
The headlines following Tuesday's tragedy said it all.
CBS had "Crowd attacks, kills man at Juneteenth festival," while ABC's website called the crowd a "mob," and those were just a few examples.
Austin's new police chief Art Acevedo calls the information "absolutely not accurate," and places part of the blame on the department he's set to take over on Thursday.
"I believe we kind of fed into it as an organization by putting information into the press release that wasn't even relevant," Acevedo said.
The information Acevedo is speaking of was sent to media outlets Wednesday morning. Near the end of the press release APD stated: "It is believed there were 2,000 to 3,000 people who were in the area when the driver and Morales were attacked."
"We've created with our press release a perception that we had an unruly crowd of 2,000 to 3,000 people, an actual mob, when in fact they were not," Acevedo said.
APD admits the descriptions in their press release caused many news outlets to report misleading stories.
"Unfortunately, the way that we put the press release together it didn't actually depict what actually happened," Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald said.
McDonald said the link made between the Juneteenth celebration and the murder...was also a mistake.
"Yes, there were a couple thousand people at that event but over where this took place there were 10 to 15 people who lived in the area," McDonald said.
"What's relevant is who was involved, and the people that were involved were the people that committed the crime," Acevedo said.