NBC30 and WVIT have the only follow-up (as of the time of this post) on yesterday’s fatal shooting at Boricua Market II on South Marshall Street, and it disappoints. On one hand, certain details about crimes are worth sharing. Knowing that this murder was the result of a dispute over a love interest helps show that violent crimes are not usually random, and that they are not even all drug-related. Journalistic standards still should be met, and this means not including unnecessary information, such as the following:
Gonzalez, with a toddler and no job or schooling to speak of, offered a message for men who may be listening.
Gonzalez is the woman who the two men had fought about. By mentioning her education or work status, NBC30 is providing the precise information needed to solidify certain stereotypes held by viewers. I can’t figure out why these details were mentioned, as they have no connection to the confrontation that ended in the death of one man yesterday.
It’s nothing to be bitter about, though, as irony is immediate. In the same piece that discusses a woman’s lack of education, the tv station shows its own lack of education:
Maria Gonzalez, Guerra’s girlfriend, said Guerra confronted the owner after he discovered that she dated the man while her and Guerra were separated.
If you can’t spot it, the problem is with a pronoun. And, the problem is with turning an incident about the inability for two grown men to settle something like men, into a story about the female who happened to be in the middle.
Edited to Add: The Hartford Police Department arrested Rene Fernandez of Bloomfield for manslaughter. It’s listed in the HPD arrest log.
