Shooting on I-94: News, Videotape and Iraq

Brian William Skold, a 28-year-old man from Sauk Rapids got drunk back on May 27. His family called the police, saying that he drunk, making threats, and had a shotgun with him.

The family stayed in touch with Skold via cell phone. He let them know that he was still armed and "threatened to come out shooting." To their credit, the family relayed information to the police.

A chase through Alexandria, Minnesota, surface roads, and finally I-94, ended around mile marker 115. Law enforcement stopped Skold's pickup with stop sticks. That's when he called the Stearns County dispatch center. After he found out that his tires were flat, he "became increasingly agitated and threatening."

Sadly, Skold decided to fire a shot in the air, and then aim at police officers. A hearing determined that they were justified when they shot and killed Skold.

Thankfully, the police had one of their squad car video cameras as a witness. The Army Times reported that the tape shows the incident ending after "Skold had fired a round of birdshot in the air and threatened that the next round would be 'lead.' The tape, made from a squad car, shows Skold chambering a round, dropping into a crouch and pointing his gun toward officers."

Echo Press, the Alexandria newspaper, did a pretty good job of reporting the incident.

Elsewhere, on the state and national level, news coverage of Skold's inebriate death dutifully reported that he was Iraq veteran who had returned from Iraq. And that he was depressed. After returning from Iraq.

The Star Tribune's Wednesday edition that week had "Did war's demons follow Iraq veteran in I-94 chase?" splashed across the top of the front page.

The post hoc ergo propter hoc argument was obvious.

Problem is, Skold's depression didn't seem to be connected to his tour in Iraq. His family "backed off" (as the Star Tribune put it) the news report that Skold had been suicidal since returning from Iraq. As an off-the-front-page article in the Star Tribune later put it, "one source had never met Skold. The other knew him only in passing."

That "Iraq Veteran" tag added to Skold's name in the news reminds me rather unpleasantly of the "Vietnam veteran" used to identify alleged suspects back in the seventies. True, the guys who were caught robbing convenience stores and liquor outlets had served in Vietnam, but they were also in the age-and-sex demographic that's most likely to commit violent crime.

Journalists do, of course, have high and noble reasons for what they do. And if you have any doubts about that, just ask them.