This is a surprisingly harshly debated topic.

Recently, here in Switzerland, police departments argued the pros and cons of naming suspect nationality.

If you do it, readers can actually get a clear picture of the demographics of criminals. However, the media can cherry pick those suspects that fit their custom brand of racism.

If you don't do it, racist/ageist/whatever prejudices can simply fill the minds of the readers with their preconceived notions of what the suspect "must be like", which isn't better.

This already happens in the US. If the perp is male he likely gets named. If he or she is of the majority “race” they’ll likely be mentioned, otherwise it’s a more bland description at which point people guess that since those attributes weren’t mentioned then the perp is likely not of the majority population.

On the other hand some publications will publish gender, race, religion, age etc regardless.

For clarification, I was talking about the police department's media speakers, who are (at that point in time) the only people that have that information.

IIRC it varies on a state-by-state basis (much like for Florida Man) which data they have to or can publish.

Point being: if the police department only publishes "43 year old female", the media can't publish race, religion, etc..

With ‘citizen journalists’ who get footage from Twitter or NextDoor, that information can come from alternate non official sources.

I’ve seen quite informative descriptions by people: height, build, age, color of clothes but purposely leave out another physical characteristic. I’ve also seen it when someone does include this characteristic you will find people who complain that including this information furthers stereotypes (altho when video is included it’s kind of nonsensical to say that, unless it’s poor quality or at night), but when it’s a majority suspect you’ll have comments like, oh, just another *guy. Like zero self awareness.

So really, the problem with the news is the people reading it.

It’s extremely unusual for senior citizens to commit violent crimes against strangers. It’s news like “man bites dog.”

Surprise is an emotion, and it's surprising that someone so old decided to become a domestic terrorist.

It's someone who doesn't fit the mold that people expect for this kind of attack. For both the buckets of right wing extremists and religious extremists, it tends to be younger people, at least on the ground.