Ch. 6 botches shooting report

Yesterday, as the story was breaking after an attempted bank robbery on Broad Street in South Providence, WLNE-TV (Channel 6) mistakenly reported on its mid-day newscast that a Providence police officer had been shot. The station then mistakenly reported that two officers had been shot. (No officers were shot during the episode, which, police say, resulted in the suicide of one suspect and the arrest of two others.)

A short time later, an upset lieutenant at the crime scene addressed the assembled media throng, saying that whoever reported that an officer had been shot needed to correct that information. N4N is told that a number of concerned officers also e-mailed headquarters after hearing about the false report.

Following its noon newscast, WLNE broke into its programming at roughly 12:45 to correct the story. A more formal mea culpa followed during the less-viewed 4 pm newscast. I’m not yet certain whether other corrections followed, and I could not find any mention on Channel 6’s Web site of the misreport. The station offers this teaser: "Only on ABC6: New Details in Providence Daytime Robbery and Shooting."

One commenter on the site asks:

7:47 AM Anonymous wrote ...Are yoou going to comment on mis reporting the story early on?

I’ve placed calls to news director B.J. Finnell and to general manager Stephen Doerr, and will post additional details if and when I hear back from them.