Who knew? Reporting what you feel is true versus what actually is true makes for poor journalism.

A handful of reporters and pundits were outraged this week after footage emerged showing law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital roughly arresting a Hispanic man who tried to escape on foot during a traffic stop.

The initial incensed response is humorous, in a macabre sort of way, given the contrast between what we have been told about the man and what we know about the law enforcement officials.

“BREAKING,” tweeted NBC News Washington, D.C., affiliate reporter Aimee Cho, “Just saw police and federal agents detain a man on the National Mall. He appeared to try to escape, then was quickly tackled to the ground by several agents and was screaming in Spanish, ‘Please, I’m not a criminal, I work here, I want to be with my family!’”

Her breaking news tweet included exclusive footage of the incident, which everyone would subsequently use as a reference point in response to the arrest.

The arrested man, David Perez-Teofani, has entered the U.S. illegally three times, according to federal authorities. When he was arrested this week, he was defying a “final order of removal” after returning to Mexico twice before.

Perez-Teofani was also charged in 2024 with “indecent liberties with a child under the age of 15 and aggravated sexual battery,” according to Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court records reviewed by the New York Post.

© The Hill