AP blasted for 'divisive, sensational' police killings story in aftermath of Derek Chauvin verdict

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Media top headlines April 26

Nickelodeon’s ‘environmental racism’ segment and more round out today's top media headlines.

A provocative Associated Press story spotlighting police killings in the immediate aftermath of the Derek Chauvin murder trial has drawn criticism for lacking context and stoking divisions.

"1 verdict, then 6 police killings across America in 24 hours," the AP headline read, going on to describe the situations that included the Ma'Khia Bryant shooting in Columbus, Ohio.

RealClearPolitics President Tom Bevan tweeted out a HuffPost headline that picked up the story, noting it was "everywhere" since the AP is a wire service.

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"Hard to imagine a more divisive, sensational, context-less headline. A textbook example of the media being the enemy of the people," Bevan tweeted.

"At least six people were fatally shot by officers across the United States in the 24 hours after jurors reached a verdict in the murder case against Chauvin on Tuesday. The roll call of the dead is distressing," the AP wrote. "A 16-year-old girl in Columbus, Ohio. An oft-arrested man in Escondido, California. A 42-year-old man in eastern North Carolina ... An unidentified man in San Antonio. Another man, killed in the same city within hours of the first. A 31-year-old man in central Massachusetts.

"The circumstances surrounding each death differ widely. Some happened while officers investigated serious crimes. Police say some of the people were armed with a gun, knife or a metal pole. One man claimed to have a bomb that he threatened to detonate. In several cases, little is known about the lives of those killed and what happened in their final moments."

The first person referenced is Ma'Khia Bryant, whose death received extensive attention after Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.

However, the situations could scarcely be more different. While Chauvin pushed his knee into a handcuffed Floyd's neck for nearly 10 minutes, Bryant was shot and killed by an officer while wildly swinging a knife at another woman.

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As the AP noted, several of the stories involved officers encountering armed suspects. One of the men killed in San Antonio fired a gun at police, while another man in Massachusetts was a convicted felon who claimed he had a bomb strapped to his chest.

The AP did not report that one of the men killed in San Antonio was accused of murdering a man, identified as 49-year-old Bobby Borrego, and then engaged in a firefight with police when they confronted him.

"They told him a lot of times to put his gun down, to stop shooting at them, to put the gun down. They tried to give him a chance to live, but he didn’t want it," Borrego's girlfriend told a local news outlet, KSAT.

As one of the world's premier wire services, the AP is widely read and influential in the press. On Sunday, liberal CNN anchor Jim Acosta referenced a "rash of police killings of black Americans, many of them happening the same week" of Chauvin's conviction.

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On Meet The Press, associated University of Minnesota professor Keith Mayes said "six Black people have lost their lives at the hands of police after the [Chauvin] verdict." It's unclear if he was referencing the AP report, but only two of those killed by police in the report were identified as Black. At least one was White.