Today's mass shooting in the US

Not a mass shooting, but still awful:

A manhunt is under way in Houston, Texas, for a gunman who attacked a young family in a drive-by shooting, killing a seven-year-old girl.

Jazmine Barnes, her three sisters and mother, LaPorsha Washington, were driving when an unknown man pulled up alongside them and opened fire.

Jazmine and Ms Washington were shot, and the seven-year-old died in the backseat as a result of her wounds.

Police believe they were targeted at random and have not confirmed a motive.

Authorities say the unidentified gunman is a bearded white male in his 40s, wearing a red sweatshirt, according to Ms Washington's 15-year-old daughter, who got a glimpse of the man.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46739175
 
Maybe she looked at the wrong car as they got fired on? Not sure how rational I would be in that situation.

Where had the previous poster got the idea it was a scam to make money?
 
Minusorange said:
Think he's talking about this



When in reality the shooter was a young black man
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So fairly normal eyewitness mistake.

It's one of the reasons eyewitnesses are considered so unreliable by many courts, as if something unexpected happens, especially if it's shocking the average person will be lucky to get most of even the most basic details correct.
Just think about how many people can't get the colour of the car they've seen in an accident right, or it's make (even if distinctive).

IIRC someone who trained prospective Detectives (the trainees were already fully trained police), would have at one point in his class people barge in and "shoot" someone in the class (or something similar), then whilst the rest of the class were unaware it was staged get witness statements from them.
The results were usually that no one got everything right and most people got major basic details wrong - he did it to demonstrate how unreliable even a supposedly better than average eyewitness was and the importance of certain methods of getting eyewitness reports (there are some ways that give far more reliable results but it requires the officers to know how to phrase the questions, what order and how to clarify without influencing the witness).
 
There are eight basic colours of vehicle but only two for mankind unless you say "brown" or "yellow" are separate, so to ID a black man as white sounds dodgy to me ;) In your scenario above did anyone get the colour of the actual fake shooter incorrect?
 
Except that as was said it's likely the wrong vehicle and it's occupant was ID'd...

You look around for where a noise came from, you see something for a fraction of a second you assume that was it, as you didn't see what was there when the noise actually happened or you looked in slightly the wrong place.
 
https://www.gofundme.com/justice-for-my-daughter-jazmine

Plus 30k from a basket ball player for the funeral, plus 100k dinated for a reward. How much would have been donated without the white power hate crime narrative I wonder? The comments on the gofundme are interesting.


VincentHanna said:
Maybe she looked at the wrong car as they got fired on? Not sure how rational I would be in that situation.

Where had the previous poster got the idea it was a scam to make money?
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"Why would the mother tell the media that the shooter was a 40 year old white male, with blue eyes, with a 5o’clock shadow, wearing a red hoodie, and driving a red truck? She even said that the red truck pulled up beside her on the right side of her vehicle, and then suddenly sped up and pulled around on her left side and started shooting into her car. That’s a very detailed description of the events...only to find out that the real shooter was a 20 year old black male who was driving a silver Kia compact car. Oh...and he happens to be friends with her on FB."
 
Chris Wilson said:
There are eight basic colours of vehicle but only two for mankind unless you say "brown" or "yellow" are separate, so to ID a black man as white sounds dodgy to me ;) In your scenario above did anyone get the colour of the actual fake shooter incorrect?
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Eye witnesses are low quality evidence even when they're not being shot at, so I'd pencil it is as possible. There's an extremely strong tendency for people to remember seeing what they expect to see and not what they actually saw, even when they're being honest and trying to be accurate. We all like to think of our memory as being a recording of what happened, but it's mostly made up later, is more like a "based on a true story" thing and might or might not bear much resemblence to the truth.

It's perfectly possible for independent eyewitnesses, genuinely independent without any connection at all, to remember seeing things that absolutely definitely did not happen at all, let alone remember seeing details that are completely inaccurate. Ask 5 eyewitnesses, get 6 different accounts of what happened.
 
The_Abyss said:
Shocking that this thread was languishing several pages off the front page. I had to search for it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47261314

Our resident RSS trolls are slacking, or ignoring topics that don't require a new thread...
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Uther said:
Another disgruntled ex employee. 'Only' five dead, surprised it even made the news. Donald sends his prayers.
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Hold on. Why is everyone so quick to comment? Do we even know yet whether the cause is mental illness (shooter =white) or terrorism (shooter =brown).

Before commenting, please show some decorum, and wait to see whether this is a moment for pained hand-wringing, and "hopes and prayers", or for sustained noisy and furious demands for Govt to provide the most extreme countermeasures imaginable.
 
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