If Southern Utah residents were confused during a recent police manhunt for a double murder suspect, it wasn’t exactly their fault.

They were given faulty information by police and media who chose to identify the 28 year old transgender-identified suspect as a woman rather than a biological male.

The suspect, born Collin Bailey, is accused of shooting his parents Joseph and Gail Bailey to death in their Washington City, Utah home on June 18 and attempting to shoot his brother Cory through a door.

Police issued a shelter-in-place order for residents in the Southern Utah community and official reports told residents to be on the lookout for an “armed and dangerous” woman named Mia Bailey.

The practice of police and media referring to suspects by their preferred gender identity is a relatively new practice.

But as Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) explained in a video shared on X, it’s a practice that can dangerously undermine public safety when a violent murderer is on the run.

At least one resident who was interviewed by KSL television expressed confusion over the alerts that were issued and told the interviewer that another woman had seen a random man in the area walking between home lots but did not think to notify police because she thought they were looking for a woman.

The Washington City Police Department issued an alert the evening of the killings that identified Bailey as a “transgender male transitioning to a female.” That alert included photos of Bailey with long and short hair.

According to the Post Millennial, the next morning, St. George police released an alert that referred to Bailey exclusively as “she” and did not clarify that the suspect was a transexual man in transition.

This alert was picked up by KSL News radio and reported with the headline “Police look for woman suspected in double homicide in St. George” with a photo of Bailey presenting as a woman. That headline was later changed to read “suspect” instead of woman as the search continued.

Bailey was arrested later that day and has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder.

The case raises serious questions about how bending the knee to woke ideology has become a higher priority than providing the public with accurate information.