Nefertiti Jaquez Reported Officer’s Death an Hour Before He Was Pronounced Dead
Photo via Twitter
Editor’s Note: The headline and other parts of this story have been updated to reflect new information.
Last Thursday, in the wake of the shooting of Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson at a GameStop in North Philadelphia, reporters were scrambling to get the latest news in the case. And NBC10’s Nefertiti Jaquez was the first one to report that Wilson had died. The problem was, he hadn’t been pronounced dead yet.
Wilson was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital that evening at 6:25 p.m., and Jaquez’s report came about an hour earlier. According to reports, Jaquez shared the same information on the air just after 5:30 p.m. Within 15 minutes, the station announced that Wilson was actually in critical condition.
Her report also made it onto Twitter, where she wrote the following: “We have learned the Philadelphia Police officer who was shot earlier at 22/Lehigh has died.” That tweet was retweeted at 5:37 p.m., 48 minutes before Wilson was pronounced. Jaquez’s original tweet has since been deleted.
“@nefertitijaquez: We have learned the Philadelphia Police officer who was shot earlier at 22/Lehigh has died.” ¡Que triste!
— Yvette A. Núñez (@yvetteanunez) March 5, 2015
Around the same time that Jaquez’s tweet went out, someone tweeted “Police officer shot dead in Philadelphia” and linked to an NBC10 story online. It’s unclear what that story said at the time, because it has been updated. But City Representative Desiree Peterkin-Bell was quick to correct the information:
@LeeJasper not shot dead. Keep praying
— desireepeterkinbell (@DPBell) March 5, 2015
On Tuesday, we learned that Jaquez, 33, is no longer with NBC10. There’s no official word as to the cause for her separation from the station, and neither NBC10 nor Jaquez immediately responded to a request for comment. The Daily News is reporting Jaquez may no longer be with the station because she reported the name of the officer before his family had been notified. Jaquez’s bio has been scrubbed from the NBC10 website.
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