Covering crime and death is one of the worst parts of being a journalist. I don’t know a single journalist that thrives on someone’s misery, nor enjoys having to talk with friends and family of a victim or the accused. In fact, I know people who feel “dirty” at the end of the day because of the grime, but they know dealing with death and crime are part of the job.
Today’s story of the death of Jasmine Mills is no different. Police say someone attacked the 18-year-old woman and beat her to death in a Waterloo convenience store parking lot overnight. Police tell us they don’t have any suspects and killer is still on the loose. However, police believe Mills knew her attacker so there isn’t a threat to the general public. On the surface, it may seem like the media already knows who, what, where when & how… but we don’t know the why? More importantly, do we know the whole story?
During the course of our investigation into the story, we did a background check on the victim. It is standard operating procedure for journalists to find out what public information exists about a victim and/or a suspect connected with a crime. We never know what clues we may find that could shed some light on the case.
We did discover that someone shot at Ms. Mills car last month and she’s had some run-ins with the law, the most recent was yesterday when Waterloo police arrested her for writing bad checks. Not just one or two, but dozens. Of course, some people were quick to chastise KWWL for our decision to air the public information.
“Shame on you. This “child” died a very brutal death and you have to bring up that she had run ins with law enforcement. What does it matter?”, one person wrote. Yes, this woman died a brutal death. No one deserves to have their life taken away from them. However, her background does matter. Are the recent problems a coincidence or did it somehow lead to her death? Why would someone be so mad at this woman to want to killer her? Her background may shed light on that.
“It will not make the situation rectify itself nor will it help the heartache her family feels right now. As a matter of fact, you just added to it” the message continues. Many people feel the media has no heart, that we’re simply vultures. It is not true. Every time there is a crash, fire, death, accident, etc… we know it affects someone’s family. We try to be as sensitive as possible, but we also don’t try to censor the news. Some facts need to be reported.
“You guys should think before you speak. Again, shame on you. Some things the public just does not have a right to know”. My answer to this is that we ALWAYS think before we speak. We also believe the public has the right to know everything that helps put a story into context and/or perspective.
Here is why we decided to run the information on Ms. Mills background. Her death was a very public event. Her killer is on the loose. Do recent run-ins with the law hold any clues to what happened today? We don’t know. But we do know, that withholding information about Ms. Mills doesn’t give us a balanced picture of the whole story. There is much more to this than the fact someone was killed. Releasing her information may help shed some light to police, friends, neighbors or anyone who may have information on why someone would have wanted to kill her. When people talk, there’s a better chance police can get evidence to arrest someone.
Lastly, we have not reported any of the other rumors or tips that have come into our newsroom. However, those tips are what led us to look more deeply into her background. Everything we reported is public record. In the end, we hope police find Ms. Mills killer. We promise to uncover any facts that may help police close this case and help the family get the justice and healing they need during this tough time. If you have any tips or comments, you can email me directly at jmurray@kwwl.com.
John (JJ) Murray
News Director
KWWL-TV
Posted under News Coverage
This post was written by jjarvis on December 11, 2008
