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And if over 4,000 articles are posting the same thing, how long do you suggest the posters here wait before posting the ‘published’ article or the news therein? Should posters say that the AP, UPI, Reuters and witnesses just ‘might’ be wrong - so we should wait a few days, until the “REAL” facts come out?

so we should wait a few days, until the “REAL” facts come out?

Not necessarily. But you should take things with a grain of salt. Like the local news saying that YWAM was specifically about converting Muslims to Christianity. It doesn't take much for a line to picked up and repeated without any real basis in fact. With 10,000 members, it's more likely that 7,000 is the total who attend on a weekend. Probably over 4 services or more. The shooting occurred after the last service was over (I believe). So, a guesstimate of the number on campus would be in the hundreds, not thousands.

post 1933 nails it. If you HAVE to make a decision to act on, you may have to use whatever facts are at hand. But in these breaking news accounts, always be skeptical and cross check, until things settle down. Here, within 30 hours or so (and probably less -- some enterprising reporter surely asked someone "were services going on?" within a couple of hours) we KNOW that all of the above articles were just parroting the first thing they heard.

The point is really not that important, except as an example of how something that simple is gotten wrong. Look at what we have heard so far that, as far as I know, as a simple citizen out of town, may be right and may be wrong:

-- at first shooting, was wearing "skullcap"

-- at second shooting, was wearing a "tactical helmet."

-- Had "IEDs" ; or "grenades"; or "smoke grenades/bombs";

-- Had been a mission with the youth group

-- Male guards had guns but didn't use them;

-- Male guards didn't have guns.

I think we know the broad outline now, and it's basically a good story of heroism finally stopping an evil and screwed-up guy. But don't tell me we know all the relevant facts just because they have been in the media, or because they fit our perception of the best story.