As news of Wednesday’s shooting near Washington, D.C. broke, an ugly, but, sadly, familiar, pattern began taking shape across many forms of media.

Before the identity and status of the shooter or condition of those injured were known, armchair pundits began weighing in across Twitter and cable news, drawing generalizations about political ideology and trying to score political points from the attack.

Conservatives were quick to claim “the left” was responsible due to violent imagery and rhetoric in political discourse, while others began citing issues from lack of gun control to mental health care as the underlying causes.

At the time of these statements, little to nothing was known of the shooter, but, due to the 24/7 news cycle and nonstop social media, many felt encouraged to weigh in, anyway.

While subsequent reports indicate the shooter, who was highly critical of Republicans, had a political motivation, for these self-assigned “experts” to begin editorializing so early was highly irresponsible.

It’s true political discourse has coarsened, from the widely-condemned photoshoot of comedian Kathy Griffin with a prop head of a decapitated President Donald Trump, to calls by Ted Nugent, who was later invited to the White House by Trump, for former President Barack Obama and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton to “be hung” or for Clinton to “suck on my machine gun.”

However, to extrapolate and use the incident as a club to blame solely one side is a purely cynical move.

To begin such commentary while a story is still developing can lead to a commentator putting their foot in their mouth, as was the case when ABC News’ Brian Ross incorrectly suggested

Aurora Theater shooter James Holmes was a Tea Party member in 2012.

But, far worse, not waiting for the facts and jumping to premature conclusions can exacerbate an already-volatile situation and only heighten the tense atmosphere.

Everyone would do well to offer support to the victims and to take a deep breath before trying to analyze events such as what occurred on Wednesday.