The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
See No Evil
A curious story from Wichita, Kan., crossed the Associated Press wire yesterday:
Police say two people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting during a wake at a house in Wichita.
Sgt. Ronald Hunt says all the victims of Saturday night’s shooting were adults. He did not know their ages or genders.
Hunt says one victim is in critical condition, while as many as four others are in serious condition.
Police say the shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m. on the ninth day of the wake, which was being held for an elderly woman buried earlier Saturday.
Deputy Police Chief Robert Lee could not say how many shooters were involved but says some of the shots came from outside. Police won’t say if they believe the shooting is gang-related.
Officers had trouble communicating because many of those at the house did not speak English.
Police are looking for a pickup truck seen leaving the home.
Supposedly no one has any clue who the perpetrators or the victims were, except that the AP hints the shooting might have been gang-related and tells us that “many of those at the house did not speak English.” Did they speak any other language? The AP doesn’t say.
We had a hunch, which we explored by checking the local paper, the Wichita Eagle. It had stories on the shootings Sunday and Monday, but the only additional detail came was this, from the Sunday story:
[Neighbor John] Kemp said that the woman who the wake was for and her husband ran a restaurant in the neighborhood.
“They were doing well,” Kemp said.
That restaurant was closed Sunday afternoon.
Hmm, we have an old couple who ran a restaurant, a gathering of non-English speakers, and hints of gang activity. It sounds as though an ethnic community in Wichita is plagued by violence–though which ethnic community it is, is a closely guarded secret.
Well, closely guarded by the Eagle and the AP, anyway. KSNW-TV, the local NBC affiliate, was able to dig up (although not to spell properly) the fact that somehow eluded the eagle-eyed Eagle reporters: “The crowd was made up of Laotion-Americans and Laotion immigrants.”
This did not surprise us, because the story, as vaguely described as it was by the AP and the Eagle, reminded us of a scene from “Gran Torino,” the new Clint Eastwood movie, which involves a Laotian gang in an inner suburb of Detroit. It says something about the state of journalism in Wichita that people who see Hollywood movies are better informed than people who read the local paper.
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