Question

Three Denver police officers were fired for allegedly joking about using newcomer shelters for "target practice."

Answer 1

The original claim from a social media account quoting NBC news says that “Three Denver police officers accused of joking about going to newcomer shelters for "target practice" were fired by the department.” After searching this claim, I found a multitude of news outlets reporting on the same situation, each with similar titles. Both local Denver and national outlets, such a NBC News, 9 News, Denver7, CBS News, the Denver Gazette, and the US News reported on the incident. All outlets reported the news on either August 7th or 8th, showing that it is not a recycled news event but current. The author of the referenced NBC News article is Minyvonne Burker, an established senior breaking news reporter who has written many breaking news stories with NBC News. The article quoted the Department, naming the 3 officers investigated and contextualizing that the “jokes” were made in a groupchat on March 27th. However, there is no direct evidence or information on what the officers said in this article. However, the article from 9News provides screenshots of the conversation between the 3 officers, as well as direct quotes of them explaining their actions afterwards and video footage. With this information, the claim is clearly true. The term “target practice” was never used in the texts, which can potentially cause misunderstanding, but is a term specifically used in quotes to summarize the actions of the officers. I believe the term is mostly accurate to the situation.

Comments

You did an excellent job dissecting the Denver police officers' claim. The fact that the same subject is being covered by multiple news outlets indicates that it is current and not merely outdated information. Credibility is increased by using local media like 9 News and Denver7 in addition to well-known sources like NBC News. Additionally, NBC author Minyvonne Burker has breaking news experience, which contributes to the trust-building. It's alarming, though, that the NBC story omits the cops' actual statements. 9 News's coverage is strengthened by the use of screenshots and direct quotes. You present a compelling argument for the claim's veracity overall, but in order to prevent misconceptions, it would have been preferable if the original article had provided more information.

Answer 2

On the 9 NEWS site, we can see actual screenshots of their text messages. And to be precise, Officer Rodrigo Basurto texted, "Talk [sic] should go to the migrant hotel on 6th and Federal and shoot them there lol plenty of targets in there." As you can see, he didn't use the exact words, "target practice", which this claim uses.   

Also, 9 NEWS states, "9 NEWS Investigates obtained copies of those text messages and videos of the three officers trying to explain themselves during an internal investigation." We can actually watch a video which they themselves explain the reasons behind their behavior. They actually admit to their guilt. 

It is a true that they acted in a way as this claim, but while they texted context that conveys the meaning of "target practice", they didn't actually use that specific terms. This could lead to some misunderstanding, therefore, it’s reasonable to avoid using quotation marks around "target practice" here.

Officers explain jokes about using migrants for target practice | 9news.com

In addition, we can also find this news on CBS news.

Denver police officers fired over "disturbing" messages that "joked" about shooting migrants - CBS Colorado

Comments

While I understand that there has been evidence obtained that the phrase target practice was not used, I don't think that this makes the headline exaggerating. Using quotations may not actually indicate that the article is saying the officers used those specific words, but also could show that they are paragraphing a more complicated statement made by one of the officers. This is what I believe the quotation marks are there to do, which would then make the headline not misleading. Regardless, the sentiment behind the statement was clearly target practice, both of those words are used, and I don't think saying they "didn't use those terms" is a valid complaint, due to the fact that they are being paraphrased in the headline and it was clearly the sentiment and language being used.

Answer 3

The claim that three Denver police officers were fired for joking about using newcomer shelters for “target practice” is mostly accurate. However, the exact phrase “target practice” was not used in their text messages. Instead, Officer Rodrigo Basurto texted "Talk should go to the migrant hotel on 6th and Federal and shoot them there lol plenty of targets in there". This conveys a similar meaning but does not use the specific term “target practice.”

9 NEWS: The site provides actual screenshots of the text messages exchanged between the officers. This message, while conveying the idea of “target practice,” does not use those exact words. Additionally, 9 NEWS obtained videos of the officers explaining their behavior during an internal investigation, where they admitted to their guilt.

While the officers did joke about shooting migrants, the specific term “target practice” was not used in their messages. This distinction is important to avoid potential misunderstandings. Therefore, it is more accurate to describe the content of their messages without using quotation marks around “target practice.”

https://www.9news.com/article/news/investigations/former-dpd-officers-joked-migrant-shelters-target-practice/73-17e49f82-5257-4703-b037-66896d7a862e

Comments

This answer simply and clearly explains the ways in which the claim was exaggerated. For someone who hasn't read the article, this shows me what i need to know for the context of the claim. Although next time I would just try to make the font and everything like that the same throughout. Other than that, this is a good answer.

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Thank you for fact-checking exactly what the officers said. It is frustrating when news outlets don't use exact quotes in their article titles, making the headlines less accurate. I will be reminded to do research like this in the future. On another note, were you able to find any additional news sources that could verify the screenshots from the officers?

Answer 4

The source that this claim is using is from NBC News. The information used from this source is correct although the headline does use the phrase "target practice" which in my opinion seems like less disturbing way of what the officers actually said. In this specific article, they don't actually tell us what was originally said in these deranged text messages, I had to do some searching. This is where I found more articles discussing the same story. All this information seems reliable considering all the information remains the same throughout different news outlets. I thought that this article was mediocre, the author did a good job at sticking to the information and not pulling her personal opinion through, but I wished that they would have gone more into detail about the story and listed all the facts about the investigation. The author of this article has other articles posted on NBC News and she is a regular reporter, but the other articles seem to have more depth and length to them then this one did, so i'm not sure if they were running low on information or time with this one. While this article is fairly new being posted two months ago, the investigation started in March and the officers we're arrested in July.