None of us have any idea what happened, but there comes a point when the sheer number of anecdotal evidence becomes a story too big to ignore.
The problem is perception. On some level, people are judging the man by the characters he's played, including one of the most beloved family men of all time. This report is at odds with that.
I was trying to explain this to someone earlier in terms of another performer. Assuming you've ever heard the name George Carlin, you'll likely know one of two versions of him. You'll either know the stand-up comedian, famous for his words that can't be spoken on television, or you'll know Mr. Conductor who never, ever think of using mean words at all. (Middle ground would be the dude out of Bill and Ted, but he's an outlier.)
Try to explain to a fan of the comedian that millions of children love Carlin for his work on a kid's show, and they might not believe it.
Try to explain to a kid that they can't watch "that video" of Mr. Conductor they found on YouTube, and they might not understand why.
Neither of those people were George Carlin. Only Carlin was George Carlin, and it's not likely that anyone in this thread actually knew him.
Cosby's exactly the same. We know his act. We know his on-TV persona. And we know the grieving father who lost a young son. But it's all 2nd hand information filtered through edits and camera lenses, and much of it involves other people's words being spoken in his voice from a script. None of us know what the man would or wouldn't do, because none of us know the man at all.