Local Media Gives Us Gas

On Wednesday morning, Fort Wayne Police forced two people from a house in the 800 block of Columbia and arrested them after they had barricaded themselves in the house. Police were there to serve a warrant. 

What makes this interesting is how the local news media stories were similar and different. 

Comparing the stories to the "official" FWPD press release, it appears that local media gets good marks for getting the Who, What, Where, Why, and How correct. So far, so good. 

How the individuals were "motivated" to abandon the house seems to have confused local media. 

FWPD Press Release - "Emergency Services introduced a chemical agent into the residence". 

WANE-15 - "Police fired gas into the home and the suspects came out."

WPTA ABC21 - "Officers say they then used gas to get the suspects to exit the home." 
Note how similar the WANE-15 and WPTA ABC21 stories are, including the curious word "gas". The Maven wonders if they used Unleaded or Premium in this case.

WOWO - "police had to send tear gas into the building."
Note that the kids in the WOWO news room help us out by calling the "chemical agent" by its generic name, tear gas. A term most listeners/readers/viewers will quickly understand. 

The Journal-Gazette - "police said negotiators and chemical agents were used to persuade the couple to leave the home." 
Note that the J-G reports the facts from the official Press Release. 

Each story is "correct" in regard to the facts, but the story from WOWO is easier to understand and digest from a user standpoint. The TV stations appear to be copying from each other's papers, again. The similarity of those efforts including the confusing and useless term "gas" do nothing more than confound their viewers. 
It is unclear if a journalist or stenographer wrote the J-G story. 

Find the FWPD press release here 
http://www.fwpd.org/barricaded-warrant-suspect-april-17-2019

The WANE-15 story is here
https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/columbia-ave-closed-during-police-standoff/1932726603

The WPTA ABC21 story is here
https://wpta21.com/news/2019/04/17/police-standoff-results-in-arrests-drug-charges/

The WOWO story is here
https://www.wowo.com/update-two-arrested-following-columbia-ave-standoff/

And the J-G story is here
https://www.apnews.com/566cc9e1d8214d9fb98538b18f8b5dd8