“Man kills teen.”
On January 7th, Gavin D. Beighley, 17, was murdered in Sharon, PA. He was shot in the back while riding his bicycle with friends.
Curtis Coleman III has confessed to firing six rounds at Beighley and his friends. Police are calling it wholly unprovoked. This town straddles the Cleveland, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh media markets. Many large media outlets in this region declined even to report it. Of the ones who did, most did not post any pictures.
Pictures of the victim are easy to find online, and the police made the confessed killer’s mugshot freely available to the media. Two small stations of Youngstown, Channels 21 and 27, are the only “mainstream” media to post the confessed killer’s mugshot. However, they didn’t show any pictures of the victim that were freely available.
The only video segments we can find online are from the Pittsburgh CBS and ABC affiliates. Both show no pictures of the victim or the confessed killer.
Coleman is held on a $2 million bond. He has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and illegally carrying a firearm.
