Analysis: Cops
By: Rachele Cermak
Donald Gartner was shot and killed by two St. Paul police officers Tuesday outside his girlfriend's home in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood.
After the initial AP accounts, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press both reported follow up stories on what exactly occurred that night at 594 York Ave and the life Gartner had lived.
The Pioneer Press included an interview with the girlfriend, Gloria Telin, who was an eyewitness to the incident. The Star Tribune included comments from the victim's friend Jeremy French. The eyewitness gave a detailed account of the events in her interview. The friend spoke uplifting words about the victim but no insight on what had occurred.
The Star Tribune's article focused on the public documents they dug up of Gartner troubled history with the law. They couldn't get an interview with the fiancee so they gave the cops side of what happened based off of the incident report.
The Pioneer Press acknowledged the Gartner had a troubled past but didn't use it to justify the police's actions. By provide the fiancee's point of view the reader is allowed a view deeper than any story derived from a report.