After Tyrone Bernard Wells Jr. murdered Randee Leann Rios, he called 911 and announced matter-of-factly, “I’m reporting a murder.” According to the transcript made available Sunday, Wells told the 911 operator, “It was on my account.” The operator replied: “Hold on, you said the murder was on your account? What does that mean?” Wells explained, “Yes, ma’am. That means, in the name of Allah, I murdered her.”
This only confirmed what Seattle’s KING 5 reported as far back as March 30: Wells explained that “he had been reading the Qur’an before Rios came over and told police ‘that verses in the Qur’an seemed to indicate to him that it would be necessary for him to kill Rios.’” Yet for the most part, Seattle’s media has been resolutely mute about Wells’ own stated motive for the killing. Could that be because it doesn’t fit the preferred establishment media narrative?
Conservative Seattle talk radio host Jason Rantz noted Sunday that not only did Wells’ reference to the Qur’an not receive “on-air coverage from local outlets nor the Seattle Times,” but even worse, “Times reporter Sara Jean Green went a step further, claiming there was no motive presented by the prosecutors.” It’s true: Green’s March 30 account of the murder states, “The charges don’t provide a motive for Rios’ slaying, but prosecutors say Wells claimed to have been using meth in the days leading up to her killing.” Rantz points out that “this was a lie when Green reported the story,” as the charges contain Green’s words about his Qur’an reading.
Now that the 911 call transcript only underscores Wells’ Islamic motivation, will the Seattle Times report about this fact? Of course not. Rantz recounts that Jodie DeJonge, metro editor for the Times, said that the paper had no plans to “correct or update their story.” “This is a tragic, complicated story,” explained the Times. “At this time, we have no plans to revise it. We will continue to track this case.”
In reality, it isn’t complicated at all. It’s a brutal murder, to which the perpetrator has confessed. According to KING 5, “Prosecutors requested Wells’ bail be set at $5 million to reflect the ‘extreme danger’ he poses to the community if he was released from jail, according to charging documents.” Wells also told the 911 operator that “he used a hatchet and a pair of bolt cutters to kill the woman.” When police arrived, Wells was waiting for them, his clothes smeared with blood. Inside his apartment was an “extremely bloody” scene, and Rios’ body with “major trauma about the head.” Wells’ hatchet and bolt cutters were near the body.
The meth angle that Green had noted was true, albeit incomplete. Wells “told police he used methamphetamine and had been awake ‘since Wednesday.’ The last time he reported using meth was the day before the murder, on Saturday, March 26. That night, Wells invited Rios to come to his apartment to stay the night. Wells told police he had the ‘premeditation’ to kill her at the time he invited her over.”
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But the Seattle Times and the area broadcast media outlets had no interest in informing the public about exactly what kind of premeditation was involved. Nor did they think it important to inform their readers that Wells seems to have thought his mention of reading the Qur’an could be taken as exonerating or extenuating. As he “later told police, ‘For the record … I’m not trying to throw that religion thing in there as a defense.'” Noted.
It’s not inconceivable that Wells really did get the idea to commit this act of unimaginable violence from the Qur’an, which tells believers to “kill them wherever you find them,” (2:191, 4:89), to “kill the idolaters wherever you find them” (9:5), to “strike the necks” of the unbelievers (47:4), and above all, to beat women “from whom you fear disobedience” (4:34).
So why cover up what Wells said? The reason is clear: the establishment media narrative is that Muslims are always and in every case victims, and that jihad terrorists who invoke the Qur’an to justify acts of violence are misunderstanding the Islamic holy book. In the United States, it would only foster “Islamophobia” to inform the public about such matters. As Rantz explains, “Institutionally, the Times doesn’t support the police. But when it comes to someone who might not even be Muslim, they can’t be too careful to protect a group they view as oppressed. And they will go to great lengths, including sacrificing what’s left of their near-depleted journalistic ethics, to live up to their woke, left-wing agenda.”
Indeed. For the Seattle Times and the entirety of the establishment media, the woke, left-wing agenda is paramount and overrides all other considerations, including journalistic accuracy and ethics.
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