Karma Allen describes the attack on a Hispanic man with battery acid. The incident, which happened on Friday involved Clifton Blackwell, a 61-year-old Milwaukee man charged with a hate crime on Wednesday, and 42-year-old Mahud Villalaz. According to Villalz, Blackwell threw the acid at his face after confronting him about his status as a citizen. Villalaz told Blackwell he was a US citizen before telling Blackwell how most people came from somewhere else. Villalaz had begun to walk away when he was splashed with the liquid. Available surveillance footage of the encounter shows Blackwell splashing Villalaz with the acid. Blackwell was also charged with first degree reckless injury and use of a dangerous weapon. He could face 25 years in prison.
The author does a good job of staying objective. Allen creates a good inverted pyramid, opening with the charges that they mentioned in the title before moving to the story of how the attack went down. The lead tells that Blackwell is a Milwaukee man but that seems like useless information. Since they don’t list where the attack took place, knowing where the attacker is from doesn’t seem relevant. The placement of the pictures is a little off kilter as well. Blackwell’s mugshot is under the description of Villalaz’s recount of the attack. I feel like it would flow better if it was underneath the paragraph before, which is about Blackwell. I wish the author would have provide a small warning about the picture of Villalaz. The picture is not terribly graphic, but it could be triggering to anyone who has experienced anything similar.
You’re right. It doesn’t say where the attack took place. It does say in one of the captions that Villalaz is a Milwaukee resident, so that narrows it down.
I get what you mean about the placement of the photos. It just struck me that most sites are doing all their photos the full width of the column. That isn’t necessary, and in newspaper days would have been a wast of space.