Rantz: Seattle media won’t report accused murderer says ‘Allah’ inspired grisly crime

Police say Tyrone Bernard Wells admitted to brutally murdering his girlfriend in Shoreline. While Seattle media outlets were quick to detail the gruesome details of the murder, which included the use of a hatchet, bolt cutters, and a set of drums, local journalists refused to report the motive.

Court documents reveal that Wells told police that he was awake for days, recently took meth, and read the Quran. These details were missing from the video reports from KOMO 4, KIRO 7, KING 5, and FOX 13. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times falsely claimed that “charges don’t provide a motive”.

Now, we have 911 audio that makes Wells’ motive clearer: he says he did it in the service of Allah.

911 call provides more details

Police released the 911 call where they say Wells admitted to murdering Randee Rios. In the call, a calm but frustrated Wells said, “I’m reporting a murder.” As the 911 operator tried to ascertain details on what happened and why, Wells opened up.

“It was on my account,” Wells says to the operator.

“Hold on, you said the murder was on your account? What does that mean?” the operator responded.

“Yes, ma’am. That means, in the name of Allah, I murdered her,” Wells responded.

Seattle Times won’t correct or update the story

Court documents made it clear that Wells “had been reading the Quran prior to Rios’ arrival and that verses in the Quran seemed to indicate to him that it would be necessary for him to kill Rios.” This detail didn’t make into on-air coverage from local outlets nor the Seattle Times. But Times reporter Sara Jean Green went a step further, claiming there was no motive presented by the prosecutors.

“The charges don’t provide a motive for Rios’ slaying, but prosecutors say Wells claimed to have been using meth in the days leading up to her killing,” Green wrote.

This was a lie when Green reported the story. Green’s crime coverage tends to be little more than serving as a court stenographer and these details were clearly available in the court documents. The Times intentionally left out key details while oddly downplaying the role meth played in the alleged murder.

The 911 call audio is now available and makes it even more clear that Wells thought what he allegedly did was in service to Allah.

My colleague Dori Monson on KIRO Radio reached out to Jodie DeJonge, metro editor for the Times. Would they correct or update their story? Nope.

“This is a tragic, complicated story. At this time, we have no plans to revise it. We will continue to track this case,” DeJonge wrote.

This isn’t a complicated story

There’s nothing complicated with any aspect of this story. Wells, allegedly under the influence of meth, says he killed the victim because he misread the Quran. It’s very straightforward.  And for the Times to even claim they will “continue” to track the story is absurd since they’re not tracking it now. They’re keeping key details from the public, along with the local news channels.

The reason to withhold the information is that they think by printing the allegations that some would falsely believe that Islam teaches people to kill or that his reading of the Quran is legitimate. They believe that this could stigmatize Muslims. It’s an insultingly ridiculous position.

Times journalists gleefully report when a cop is accused of a crime without any fear that their coverage could be used to paint all cops as criminals. In fact, it often is misused by anti-police activists to do just that, and they don’t change their coverage. Indeed, they changed their guidelines to sow distrust of police accounts.

Institutionally, the Times doesn’t support the police. But when it comes to someone who might not even be Muslim, they can’t be too careful to protect a group they view as oppressed. And they will go to great lengths, including sacrificing what’s left of their near-depleted journalistic ethics, to live up to their woke, left-wing agenda.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3–6 pm on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz  on  Twitter,  Instagram, and Facebook. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.

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