GUNMAN KILLED, ROBBINS MAYOR INJURED AT HAROLD’S... BUT NOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS HAVING A WHOLE DIFFERENT CONVERSATIO

730 BOOM RADIO | RED ALERT

📍ROBBINS, Ill. | A deadly shooting inside Harold's Ice Bar LLC left a gunman dead, the mayor of Robbins injured, a DJ wounded, and now social media is arguing over who should actually be called the victim.

Authorities say 29-year-old Marquelle Rose of Chicago entered the restaurant masked and opened fire toward an intended target shortly after midnight Saturday. A contracted security guard intervened and shot Rose, who later died.

Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant was inside the restaurant when the shooting erupted. Officials say Bryant was NOT the intended target. He suffered a minor graze wound while trying to get to safety, was treated at a hospital and released. A DJ was also injured.

📱 AND THEN SOCIAL MEDIA GOT INVOLVED...

Now THIS is where the conversation took a turn.

Posts circulated identifying Rose as the person who died, including posts mourning his death. But once authorities publicly identified Rose as the gunman, people online began pushing back against portrayals of him simply as the shooting "victim."

And social media basically said:

WAIT A MINUTE. Y'ALL LEFT OUT A WHOLE PART OF THE STORY.

Because according to investigators, Rose wasn't simply somebody who happened to be inside Harold's when shots rang out.

Authorities say HE WALKED IN MASKED AND STARTED SHOOTING. 

Now, I understand something very clearly: a mother losing her son is still a mother losing her son. Whatever happened that night doesn't erase somebody's grief, and I'm not about to tell a grieving mama how she's supposed to feel about her child.

BUT...

The internet is reacting to the difference between saying "my son was killed" and leaving people with the impression that he was an innocent bystander, versus the account authorities have now released.

Those are two very different stories.

👀 LADY RED'S QUESTION IS...

You can love somebody AND acknowledge what authorities say happened.

You can mourn somebody AND tell the whole story.

Because according to officials, a masked man walked into a crowded establishment and opened fire. A security guard responded, the alleged gunman was killed, the mayor was grazed and another man was injured.

THAT context matters.

Now, one thing I'm not going to report as established fact is that Rose's mother deliberately tried to mislead anybody. I found confirmation of his identity and authorities' account of the shooting, but I have not found a reliable source establishing exactly what his mother knew when she posted, or when she learned authorities considered her son the gunman.

And baby, THAT distinction matters too.

The Cook County Sheriff's Office continues to investigate what led to the shooting. Authorities have not publicly disclosed the motive or identified the gunman's intended target.

❤️ AND BEFORE WE LEAVE THIS STORY...

There really aren't any winners here.

A mother lost her son. Whatever authorities say happened inside that restaurant, that's still somebody's child, and there's a family waking up knowing he's never coming home.

The mayor was injured, another person was hurt, and an entire restaurant full of people had to experience the terror of gunfire erupting around them.

And even the security guard who authorities say responded to the shooting now has to live with having taken a life while trying to protect others.

So while social media debates who was the victim, who was the shooter and how the story was initially presented, let's not lose the human part underneath all of it.

We send our condolences to the family grieving their loss, wish a full recovery to everyone injured, and hope everyone who witnessed what happened gets the support they need.

Because sometimes there isn't a side to cheer for.

Sometimes the whole damn situation is just sad. ❤️

So BOOM family, I'm throwing this one to YOU:

Can you understand a mother's post as grief, or should the entire circumstances have been included once authorities identified her son as the shooter?

730 BOOM RADIOIT HITS DIFFERENT. EVERY TIME. BOOM! 💥