If you've been tracking on this situation in NY, you know that there has been a yuge amount of activity on social media because of it. Thankfully there are two serious lessons to be learned directly from this situation, which most people have learned early on in life but for those who need a refresher, I'l spell it out.
The media is not your friend, not social media, not news media, and especially not the guy who is barricaded in a house arguing with the police. There is only one entity which you should look for when it comes to as close to factual news as possible, and that is the police department dealing with whatever the situation is. The local police department are directly responsible through civil and criminal liability to tell the public the truth at all times. If the local police department lies, tells inaccuracies or obfuscates there are serious repercussions which can be applied in numerous ways against that department. So when the police department releases information you should do your best to read them and go by them. Beyond that, the police reports and associated affidavits are how the criminal justice system works. They are documents which will need to stand up against the defense council which will have their day in court to completely rip them apart. Any such information included in those reports has to be as close to the truth as possible. The media, social media and news media, don't have these standards, in fact it's the exact opposite as news media is covered by the freedom of press precedents and social media is just an overall shit show. Think about this when you start hearing random things about a particular situation.
Absolutely no one is coming to save you. No one. Zero people. Not your best social media buddy whom you've never met, not the guy at the range you shoot with every weekend, they are not coming to help you fight the police, overthrow the government or do one of a hundred other completely stupid things only a deranged person would think of. Unless you have a predetermined, trained, dedicated and motivated group of people who are a part of your tribe and understand the concepts, you are up the river without a boat. This is a clear instance of this being absolutely true. Did some random people show up to try to get some social media influence for being a reporter, yeah totally they did, but what did that do for the guy in question? Nothing. Think about it.