The Death of NYT's David Rosenbaum: Colbert King Still On the Case

By: E&P Staff Colbert King, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post, remains haunted by the murder of beloved New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum in January. But it goes beyond his death to how the police and emergency response failed to take proper steps to save the life of this "John Doe" (as he was labled at first), and a kind of coverup since.

King filed a column last week noting the contradictions in the official reports and returned to the subject today.

It opens: "Just as Hurricane Katrina ended up taking a back seat to the furor over the government's muddled response, focus has shifted from the Jan. 6 robbery and fatal beating of former New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum to the city's handling of that tragic event in Northwest Washington.

"What's not at issue, at least at this point, is the U.S. attorney's prosecution of the two men charged with felony murder. But questions linger about what the city did or failed to do after Rosenbaum was found that Friday evening in the 3800 block of Gramercy Street NW. Disturbing contradictions exist in the official accounts provided by the D.C. police, the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (FEMS) and the office of the chief medical examiner."

King that walks through details of those contradictions. The full story is told at the Post's site, at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030301613.html

The column then closes: "In the immediate aftermath of his death, the public was treated to an official dance -- with steps I've learned by heart after 16 years of covering the city government -- called the D.C. Boogie. It's one in which city officials, confronted with an unholy mess, try to dazzle you with their footwork, resorting to moves aimed at convincing onlookers that they are really doing something when in fact they are playing for time, waiting for the next big story to come along that will take them off the front page. That's how they fake you out.

"I'm too old to take the fake. Besides, this story is not about a journalist with a major newspaper. It's one more tragic tale that is told across the city, especially in neighborhoods that are home to those without weight in Washington's power centers. That John Doe on Gramercy Street is a way to tell the story -- even if some folks downtown and others caught up in their small worlds don't want to hear it."