Fox News sorry for report that police shot black man

With tensions in Baltimore still high, police said last night that a Fox News report of a black man being shot by police in the city was not true, and the cable news network quickly apologised.

“On behalf of [reporter] Mike Tobin and the rest of our crew there, and the rest of us at Fox News, I’m very sorry for the error and glad we were able to correct it quickly,” network anchor Shepard Smith said.

Meanwhile, a police officer shot in New York as he tried to question a local man sought on gun charges has died.

Officer Brian Moore, 25, was shot on Saturday evening as he and his partner were seated in an unmarked car in a middle-class neighbourhood of Queens.

He is the first New York City officer killed in the line of duty since two uniformed officers were ambushed in December.

Moore had been hospitalised in critical condition but died yesterday.

Moore and his partner had been trying to question Demetrius Blackwell, 35, who has an extensive criminal background, after they saw him seeming to adjust an object in his waistband, police said.

Blackwell pulled out a gun and fired several times into the vehicle, police said.

He was arrested, charged with first-degree attempted murder, assault, and other counts, and was ordered to be held without bail. Those charges are likely to be upgraded.

Moore, who came from a family of police officers, joined the force in July 2010, according to mayor Bill de Blasio. He lived in the suburban Long Island town of Massapequa.

Uniformed officers who lined up outside the hospital in Queens saluted as Moore’s body was taken out in an ambulance.

“The people of this great city should take pause this afternoon just to recognize the life of a brave young man who took an oath four-and-a-half years ago to keep the people of this city safe,” said police chief James O’Neill, who worked with Moore’s father on the police force.

“That’s what he was doing when he was brutally murdered just a few short days ago.”

In Baltimore, Fox News quoted its reporter as saying the man was shot as he was running from authorities.

Police later tweeted that the report of a man being shot was not true and that a suspect had been arrested at the scene with a handgun.

The city has been on edge after looting and arson last Monday that followed the funeral of a young black man, Freddie Gray, who died from injuries suffered while in police custody.

A night curfew that had been imposed was lifted by Baltimore’s mayor on Sunday. The mayor said the Maryland National Guard would begin withdrawing from the streets over the course of this week.

The city’s chief prosecutor has brought criminal charges against the six police officers involved in Gray’s arrest.

* Reuters