Race and news reporting

I read the story on the school shootings in Cleveland, and I have to say that I'm really confused as to why they threw the race in there like that. I mean in the beginning of the story nothing was mentioned of it, then out of no where they say coon is white and the other kid is black. It said that Coon was a gothic kid who stood out in a school of blacks. I wonder if this information even needs to be written. I realize that its information that people want to know, but I think if could have been incorporated in a different way.