It will probably come to the stage soon when hardly anyone trusts official statements or media reports in the immediate wake of incidents which initially look (to the viewing public) like terrorist attacks.
The "Hispanic" suspect in the Burlington mall attack, for example, turns out not to be "Hispanic" after all.
I saw comments all over social media yesterday disbelieving that official police claim and all the mainstream media reporting of the story, and asserting instead that the man "looked Muslim" and would turn out to be a Muslim. Well, the man's name is Arcan Cetin and he's reported as being a legal immigrant, originally from Adana in southern Turkey. The police are still saying his motive is unclear.
The BBC has reported this update but, unlike some other news accounts, doesn't register the point that the earlier widely-reported police claim that the suspect was "Hispanic" was wrong.
