Both descriptions said “black”.
Yes, I realize that, and good for this newspaper. However it is still true that some papers do not do this. You are left to guess the race of the perpetrator like Russians trying to read between the lines of Pravda to figure out which politicians are in and out of favor.
I’m not asking for them to dwell on race with every story about a crime, but when wanted criminals are on the loose, it is madness to withhold a complete description out of a misguided, paternalistic sense of political correctness.