KALAMAZOO (WKZO) -- Kalamazoo's Northside Ministerial Alliance spoke out Tuesday on what it sees as unfair media coverage of the mother of three children who died in a fire at the Interfaith Apartments just over a week ago.

At a press conference, the Reverend Strick Strictland said that much has been made in some reports about the woman's arrest record...but he noted that her past troubles did not involve her children. He also said that investigators of the fire have not placed the blame on her.

Strickland wondered how the mother would have been depicted in news reports if she had been a resident of a more affluent community. He told us later that the Ministerial Alliance has reached out to the woman, and the fathers of her children. However, they have not been in what he would describe as consistent contact.