True, and much harder to gin up a mob attack on the scapegoat, if it's a tree. Could be done, though, if someone could find a racial angle on it.
I'm rather in awe of the question, "How could you stuff my baby with that many bullets?" when it appears there was just one shot. In addition to the astounding disconnect from reality, there's a real visual and even tactile brilliance to that line. If you had a beanbag toy, only instead of beans there were bullets inside, you could feel and hear the metallic friction, and even smell metal, rather like having a sock full of pennies.
Fox TV news report has neighbor (white by the way) hearing three shots.