The reporter could've left out that they were toasting Sour Apple Martinis in a $2,000 limo, but she didn't, so we know they weren't somberly drinking from whiskey bottles. That might be the craziest part to me. They could've not included the limo ride or passed it off as something else, but it's explicitly pumped up as something luxurious.
I read it as something deliberately escapist. It didn’t matter what it was, there was too much to process and focusing on a limo and drinks meant they didn’t have to focus on what had happened. She included details because that was her job to describe the scene.
People process grief/stress/trauma differently. I wouldn’t read too much into the details.