On June 11, the Star Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage in connection with the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that roiled Minneapolis for months afterward.
While handing out this coveted prize, the Pulitzer committee called the Star Tribune’s reporting “urgent, authoritative, and nuanced.”
Yet just two days before the Pulitzer announcement, the Star Tribune published a correction regarding its coverage of the state-sponsored killing of another Black man, Winston Smith Jr.
The Star Tribune’s reckless decision to reprint law enforcement’s unchecked allegation that Smith was wanted for murder does little to dispel the perception that Black men, in particular, somehow deserve to be subject to an extrajudicial killing.
Smith was gunned down by U.S. Marshals on June 3 in a parking lot in Uptown Minneapolis. He had been eating lunch with a friend moments before a swarm of law enforcement vehicles descended on his car, spraying him with bullets.
Smith’s friend was also in the car and had to be transported to the hospital after being wounded by shattered glass.
Initially, law enforcement officials falsely reported that Smith was a murder suspect and therefore, presumably, a wanted, dangerous man. Multiple news outlets followed this lead and also referred to Smith as a murder suspect.
The Star Tribune’s correction of June 9 says it “falsely reported that the man who was shot and killed by law enforcement personnel in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, later identified as Winston Boogie Smith, was a murder suspect.”
The correction notice stated that the Star Tribune published this depiction of Smith without verifying it, while acknowledging that it came directly from law enforcement.
In truth, Smith was not wanted for murder. Instead, according to subsequent reports, he had been convicted of the armed robbery of his ex-girlfriend in 2017 and was allegedly wanted for being a felon in possession of a gun.
Reporters are only human, and of course they make mistakes. But this one is especially hard to fathom, given the history of false police accounts in connection to the killing of Black people in Minneapolis.
Hours after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020, Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder put out a press release that described Floyd’s death as a “medical incident.”
Elder’s statement painted Chauvin and the other officers involved with the killing of Floyd as little more than concerned bystanders who called for an ambulance when they noticed that Floyd appeared to be in distress.
Nothing, we now know, could be further from the truth. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, for which he was subsequently convicted of murder.
We likely would never have known the truth about what happened to Floyd had Darnella Frazier not captured the encounter on her cellphone. Frazier, who was seventeen at the time, was awarded an honorary Pulitzer from the 2021 committee.
There is no known video of Smith’s killing on June 3, from either a bystander or officers’ body cameras.
Officers on the scene allege that Smith had a gun and fired first, justifying the hail of bullets that resulted in his death. Smith’s companion, however, told her lawyers that she never saw a gun in Smith’s car that day.
While municipal police officers must wear body cameras in Minnesota, U.S. Marshals are not required to do so.
Smith was killed by members of the Fugitive Task Force, which includes U.S. Marshals as well as police officers from local departments. Those officers are allowed to wear body cameras, but none apparently were when Smith was shot.
The fact is, we don’t know yet exactly what happened to Smith nor whom to believe regarding his death. What we need is accurate reporting—now more than ever.
The Star Tribune’s reckless decision to reprint law enforcement’s unchecked allegation that Smith was wanted for murder does little to dispel the perception that Black men, in particular, somehow deserve to be subject to an extrajudicial killing.
There is some light to guide us here, however. The Star Tribune’s coverage of Smith’s death has included input from his family members, who highlighted how much his two children meant to him. He’s a human—someone’s beloved father—not just a wanted felon.
Crowds have gathered in the spot where he was killed every night since June 3 to honor Smith and protest the way he was shot on sight with no chance for a trial or even the relative mercy of jail time.
During a protest on the night of June 13, Nicholas Kraus tore through the intersection where Smith was killed in an SUV. Kraus hit the car of Deona Marie Erickson, which she had parked to block off the street to protect protesters. When Kraus plowed into Erickson’s car, the vehicle slammed into Erickson and killed her.
Creative Commons
A vigil for Deona Marie Erickson at the location where she was murdered by Nicholas Kraus, who drove his vehicle into the crowd of protesters.
Protesters on the scene detained Kraus until police arrived and took him into custody. Other protesters gathered around Erickson and attempted to save her life. She was eventually taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Minneapolis police officers, apparently at the behest of the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, cleared memorials for both Erickson and Smith on June 15 while also arresting protesters. One day later, Frey wrote to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, requesting that National Guard troops be put on standby to help squash any further protests in the area.
Tragedy is compounding in Minneapolis. While people may be tempted to celebrate the Star Tribune’s Pulitzer Prize, we must remember to hold our news outlets accountable, too.