Oh, THAT Liberal Media

There's a sad story today here in Minnesota. A young man has killed his father. After a search of several hours, the boy was found walking along a rural road, and was not initially apprehended by police, but rather by a few guys working in an auto-body shop who saw him walking along the road. Having listened to a police scanner during the day, they knew a search was on, and after seeing the boy and asking who he was and if he had a gun, they detained him and called the sheriff's department.

I'm a guy who likes to know what is going on around the state, so each morning I read a few different newspaper sites: The Duluth News Tribune, The Saint Cloud Times, The Star Tribune, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press, just to name a few.

Each paper (except the St. Cloud Times which doesn't have a story on it) reports it a little differently, and there was one notable difference this morning.

From the AP at the Duluth News Tribune:

Deputies from three counties, joined by agents from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and state troopers, began searching for the teen, but a collision repair shop owner and his friends were credited with catching him about 1 p.m.

The shop's owner, Matt Gebhart, had heard news reports about the search.

"We just saw him coming up the dirt road, and we asked him where he was going. ... He looked suspicious. Asked him if he had a gun -- he said, 'yeah,' and we told him to throw it down and that we were calling the police," Gebhart said.

The youth put the gun down and followed their instructions to lie down, Gebhart said. They watched him until officers arrived about three minutes later.

Mara Gottfried's report at The Pioneer Press:

The owner of an auto body shop near Askov, Minn., had heard on the police scanner that the Pine County sheriff's office was looking for a 15-year-old boy suspected of killing his father early Tuesday, so when he saw a young man walk by a few hours later, he went outside to talk to him.

"We had no idea what he was doing, but you could see his shoes and pant legs were wet and it looked like he had been going through the woods," said Matt Gebhart, who owns Gebhart Collision Center with his wife, Sandy.

The teen's hands were in his pockets, and Gebhart asked him whether he had a gun. The boy pulled one out. Gebhart told the teen to drop the gun and lie on the ground.

The teenager complied. Gebhart called 911, and sheriff's deputies arrived within three minutes.

Finally, Tracy Swartz and Richard Meryhew at the Star Tribune:

For more than four hours Tuesday, authorities searched this small town and the surrounding woods and prairie of Pine County looking for a boy who allegedly shot and killed his father earlier in the morning.

For more than four hours, the word was out that a 15-year-old boy was on the run.

So when the teenager appeared, armed with a gun, near Hwy. 23 just south of town early Tuesday afternoon, the three men working at a nearby auto shop -- Matt Gebhart, Scott Jorgensen and Brian Volk -- knew what to do.

They got their guns.

Minutes later, they surrounded the boy and talked him into dropping the gun.

<...>

As authorities searched the town and surrounding area, Gebhart and his coworkers were busy at his auto body shop about a mile south of Askov. Although they'd heard about the hunt on the police scanner, they weren't looking for the boy.

But when a neighbor called to say that a boy matching Dallas' description was walking on the road near the shop, about 6 miles south of the Wright home, Volk ducked into the woods to get a better look.

Gebhart and Jorgensen got their guns.

As Dallas drew near, Volk asked the boy where he was going. Dallas replied that he was going to the store.

Gebhart and Jorgensen, both armed, confronted the boy and asked him if he had a gun.

Dallas said, "Yeah," Volk said.

Gebhart then told the boy to drop his pistol. Volk told him to lie on the ground.

The teenager obeyed and stayed face down in the grass for a few minutes until authorities arrived to make the arrest.

What bothers me is knowing that The Star Tribune is no friend of guns or gun owners. Did their reporters just do a better job of asking questions than the other two stories? Or is there an agenda at work here?

Granted, believing that a kid who may have just committed patricide is coming down the road and may be armed, I would likely arm myself too.

But the wording of the Star Tribune account, and then mentioning in the story at least three times where two other noted papers didn't mention the fact that the body shop guys were armed at all causes me to wonder. Even a television account of the story, which I watched last night, gave no indication of the body shop workers having guns themselves.

"So when the teenager appeared, armed with a gun, near Hwy. 23 just south of town early Tuesday afternoon, the three men working at a nearby auto shop -- Matt Gebhart, Scott Jorgensen and Brian Volk -- knew what to do.

They got their guns.

How did they know he was armed? According to all three stories, they didn't know until they asked him.

As Dallas drew near, Volk asked the boy where he was going. Dallas replied that he was going to the store.

Gebhart and Jorgensen, both armed, confronted the boy and asked him if he had a gun.

Dallas said, "Yeah," Volk said.

The language here, "both armed," and "confronted" is so drastically different from the other stories, that I can't help but wonder what might be at play here in the Star Tribune newsroom.

Note: By no means am I faulting Mr. Gebhart or Mr. Jorgensen; they absolutely did the right thing.

Of course, to the daily readers of the Star Tribune, it's really no surprise that the story was written this way.