Courts / New South Wales

Man fatally shot by police after crashing car into tree

ABC News Niki Burnside

5 Oct 2026 11:14 AEDT Summary

Crime Death and Dying

Changed after publishing · 1 edit

5 Oct 2026 11:46 AEDT the headline was changed: Man fatally shot by police ~~following~~ after crashing car ~~crash near Yass~~into tree

Outlets edit stories after they go out, usually without saying so. We keep what we saw the first time.

From the report

NSW Police has confirmed a man was fatally shot on Sunday afternoon after they were called to the scene of a car crashed into a tree in the regional town.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

ABC News Man fatally shot by police after crashing car into tree plain
7NEWS Man shot dead by police after crashing car into tree, pointing rifle at officers near Yass, NSW plain
The West Australian Police shoot man who crashed car, allegedly threatened officers with rifle plain
SBS News Man shot dead after allegedly aiming rifle at police in regional NSW plain
Brisbane Times Man shot dead by police, ~~critical~~ incident declared 1 change

Headline check

There is nothing in this headline a machine can check against the report: no figure, no name and no quotation.

Nothing was measured here, so nothing is claimed. How this is checked

This is a summary. The indicators are not. Every score on this page was measured over the full 540-word report, which is the only way the numbers mean anything.

How it is written

Niral Score 9.9 · calm mundaneloaded

10 more readings adjectives, repeated words, sentiment, jingoistic and 2 more and 4 at zero

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

police15man7officers7assistant5car5incident5shot5assistance4firearm4scene4conducted3fatally3independent3nsw3review3tree3afternoon2aimed2approached2called2confirm2crashed2critical2following2get2involved2loaded2near2north2person2point2quite2render2speak2trying2

Sentiment +0.6 hostilefavourable Jingoistic 2.8 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Sourcing 76 unattributednamed sources Mood 34.8 sorrowjoyful

4 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Religious 0 not invokedovert

How the article is written, not whether it is correct. How each is measured.

Measured on ABC News’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by Brisbane Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAtoday, The West Australian. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
ABC Newsas they published this story	9.9	4	76	0.6	34.8
7NEWS	12.3	3	59	-0.3	29.9
SBS News	12.9	3	25	-0.2	37.3

How did this read?

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The same event elsewhere

8 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

Brisbane Times Man shot dead by police, incident declared Niral 20 · mostly calm political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald Man shot dead by police, incident declared Niral 20 · mostly calm political 0 7NEWS Man shot dead by police after crashing car into tree, pointing rifle at officers near Yass, NSW Niral 12.3 · mostly calm political 0 The Age Man shot dead by police, incident declared Niral 20 · mostly calm political 0 WAtoday Man shot dead by police, incident declared Niral 20 · mostly calm political 0 The West Australian Police shoot man who crashed car, allegedly threatened officers with rifle Niral 5.8 · calm political 0 The West Australian Man fatally shot by police after crashing car into tree Niral 4.9 · calm political 0 SBS News Man shot dead after allegedly aiming rifle at police in regional NSW Niral 12.9 · mostly calm political 0