OMITTED

What the news leaves out.

← Omitted front page

15 Year Old Arrested in Shooting Near Florida A&M Stadium

22 sources · updated 2026-10-27
Left 41% Center 23% Right 36%
9 left · 5 center · 8 right

What happened

On Saturday, October 24, around 8 p.m., gunfire broke out at the intersection of Perry and Manatee streets adjacent to Florida A&M University’s Bragg Memorial Stadium in Tallahassee, shortly after the historically Black university’s homecoming football game against Arkansas–Pine Bluff. Twelve people were injured—eleven by gunshots and one, a grandmother of a victim, with an ankle injury while fleeing—including six juveniles, the youngest 11 years old; at least three had serious injuries, one of them critical, and five victims were later released from the hospital. Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said a physical altercation among two or three individuals known to one another preceded the shooting, which police described as an isolated incident, and that none of those struck appeared to have been intended targets; he said officers carried victims through the crowd before the scene was secure. On Sunday, detectives arrested 15-year-old Anthony Rivers III, charged with 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a delinquent; State Attorney Jack Campbell said he would be prosecuted as an adult, and police said additional arrests were possible. The university said the shooting occurred near campus, which it said remained safe.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 22 articles

17 of 20 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 17 of 20
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Tallahassee Police Department, Chief Lawrence Revell, Florida A&M University, Florida State University, Tallahassee Police and Tallahassee Chief of Police Lawrence Revell
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 20
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: police statement
Credits another outlet 0 of 20
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 0 of 20
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 25, 03:42 UTC by New York Post, naming its source. First document the next day, from BBC (police statement).
Not counted 2
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

The arrest coverage on the right left out the decision that most changes what those charges mean. Left-leaning coverage reported that the teenager would be prosecuted as an adult. The state attorney's plan appeared in ABC News once police announced the arrest. Both sides had already carried attempted-murder counts and a firearm charge against a minor. Those counts appeared on Fox News with no mention of adult court. Blood-and-chaos wording showed up on the right and not the left. Readers of the New York Post got a "bloody altercation." Left-leaning coverage stuck to a "shooting near" the stadium after the game. The coverage never asks a basic follow-up. How did a teenager already flagged as a delinquent obtain the firearm?
Bottom line

ABC News reported that the teenager in the FAMU shooting would be prosecuted as an adult, a courtroom path Fox News never mentioned alongside the same charges.

The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • State attorney Jack Campbell said the 15-year-old would be prosecuted as an adult official statementin ABC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Florida State University issued an emergency alert advising people in the Tallahassee area to remain indoors official statementin NBC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Fox News reported it was not yet clear how many people fired or the extent of the teen's involvement contextin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Student Jayden Dubois said he was trampled as the crowd ran after gunshots individual casein New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Homecoming vendor Stephanie Walters said she was uncertain whether she would return the next year individual casein Daily Wire · absent from left-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left-leaning coverage treated a homecoming celebration as overtaken by gunfire that reached children, quoting Revell that it is “especially heartbreaking to know that children are among those injured” and that “no family should have to experience this kind of violence.” The Guardian folded the case into a national tally, calling it one of “five mass shootings over the weekend” and citing the Gun Violence Archive’s 386 such incidents in the United States so far this year. NBC, ABC, and the BBC foregrounded FAMU President Marva Johnson’s condemnation of “senseless and despicable” violence and her pledge that the school’s “pride, our identity, and our future will not be defined by the challenges we face,” along with officers carrying the wounded through the post-game crowd. After the arrest, these outlets stressed adult prosecution of the 15-year-old and police statements that those hit were not intended targets.
The Right View
Right-leaning coverage framed a personal fight that exploded into gunfire as crowds left the stadium, with the New York Post labeling a “bloody ‘altercation’” at a homecoming party and the Daily Wire charging that a teen “unleash[ed] hail of bullets into [the] crowd.” Fox News, Breitbart, and the Daily Wire stressed that the dispute involved people known to one another, that the campus itself remained safe, and that the 15-year-old already faced “possession of a firearm by a delinquent.” They highlighted community tips and cellphone video that sped the arrest, noted that authorities had not said whether Rivers was the only person who fired, and treated the episode as a criminal case arising from an isolated quarrel rather than an attack on the school.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that shots into a packed homecoming gathering that wounded six children, including an 11-year-old, fit a measurable national pattern of mass shootings—the Guardian’s citation of five such events that weekend and 386 year-to-date from the Gun Violence Archive. The right’s strongest argument is that police called the episode an isolated dispute among acquaintances, not a targeting of FAMU, and that the accused is a 15-year-old prohibited possessor whose fire, investigators said, struck people who were not intended targets. The central unresolved tension is whether the story is chiefly evidence of epidemic gun violence at public celebrations or of a specific interpersonal fight, involving a juvenile already barred from guns, that spilled into a dense crowd.

22 sources

More stories

The week's bottom lines, in your inbox

One email a week: the five stories that mattered and what they actually mean. Free.