Last Wednesday evening was quiet. It was almost too quiet. I edited a couple of stories and by 8 p.m., I had nothing else coming in and nothing in the queues. Django was behaving itself, and the scanner just hummed quietly with the occasional status check breaking through the static. Timoshanae Wellmaker walked breathlessly into the newsroom around 8:30 p.m. with an unbudgeted story. I was grateful for the copy and excited to have something to do. We tweaked and re-tweaked and sent the story along.
It was only 9:30 p.m.
I checked my inbox and saw a release from the Columbia PD. Four hours earlier a man slid into a woman's car while she shopped at Moser's and attacked her when she returned from buying groceries. She fought him off, and the man was still at large. The GA reporter had signed out a few hours earlier, so I printed off the release and immediately began writing. We posted the story as quickly as we could, but it still took about an hour to get it through the queues.
I started packing up and nervously wondered if they'd caught the guy. I felt apprehensive about biking over to Aaron's with an armed man still running around Columbia. The CPD Twitter page kept adding updates about the guy, but they all kept repeating what was in the release. I hung around.
At 11 p.m. decided to head home. But looking back, I don't think I actually thought I was leaving. I sensed something strange in the air. Then the phone rang.
Carolyn Heger told me she'd heard shots fired in the Hitt Street garage. She dropped to the ground and once it was over, she called me. I told her to start reporting from the apartment. I sent her phone numbers for the CPD. She called several times, but no one picked up. She tweeted some pictures and watched the scene unfold. She saw more than a dozen cop cars. Her boyfriend saw a body. Maybe two. We heard over the scanner that there had been a shooting with a baby involved. Everything was chaotic. At first, I assumed the worst. This man might have shot someone. He could still be on the loose. Our night news editor went downstairs with one of the sports editors to make sure the doors to Lee Hills were locked. One of the doors was open.
Carolyn called back. The scene seemed safe, so she was going down to the garage to talk to the police and if she could find them, some witnesses. A copy editor named Ethan Colbert put on a yellow media vest and got a reporter's notebook from our print news editor. I felt nervous sending him out, but the news editors didn't stop him, so I didn't say anything. I still wonder if I should have.
Carolyn called again to say she had talked with some witnesses and a few people who went to rescue their car from the garage. I told her Ethan was headed over to help. I asked her to keep calling the police. We received an alert from the MU police saying that the suspect from an earlier armed robbery had been killed. But they did not confirm the identity of the suspect. We all felt less nervous now. It appeared the man wasn't still at large. We put up a burst, and I started a story file.
Ethan called. He was going to cross the tape. Photographers came in and began uploading photos. Carolyn returned and started furiously typing. She'd gathered several witness accounts. Then something sad and strange happened. She received word that a few of her sorority sisters had been talking with Adair when he'd been shot. She asked me if she should call them. I paused. My immediate response was "yes, of course, let's call them to get that eye witness account." My second thought was a flashback of a semester's worth of learning from my reporting on traumatic events course. I paused and told Carolyn that we probably shouldn't call. The story was shocking enough, and I didn't want to hurt those girls. We quickly talked through it and agreed to leave them out. Looking back, I think we made a good choice. Carolyn took off and Ethan came in to write the top.
Their reporting blended perfectly into a story. It was seamless. We wrote a print version and then spent more time writing a more detailed online story. I don't have many recollections of time from that night. I know Carolyn left around midnight and I got to sleep around 3:30 a.m., but it is hard to remember everything that happened before and after those time stamps.
I do remember that everything felt collaborative. We didn't have time for anything except the work. We were hyper-focused on getting the information, verifying it and meeting the deadline. I noticed that my memories from that night are different from other memories of events not involving so much stress. Like we learned in class, some of the memories are super sharp and others are not in focus at all. I didn't feel hunger. I don't remember going to the bathroom. My normal human urges were paused. The next day I was wired. I could feel that my body was still on high alert.
I talked through the experience with some of the editors and that helped. I read the stories and the updates. I talked a lot with Aaron. I still have a lot of questions. My sense is that Mark Adair was a violent and brutal man, but I still believe the system failed him. Did he deserve to be shot to death in the Hitt Street garage Wednesday night? I don't think so. Why was this man who was so obviously a threat to society simply released into the world and then so quickly able to obtain a gun and threaten people? I'd like to see some Act 2 stories about this shooting. I'd like to learn more about who this man was and what the ramifications of the events of that night are. I'd really love to read a story about the woman who fought this guy off or how the women who were talking with him are coping with that traumatic experience. I'd also like to read more about the process people go through when they leave prison and receive parole. How often do people in similar situations completely lose control? This story seems like fertile ground for Act 2 and 3 reporting.
It was only 9:30 p.m.
I checked my inbox and saw a release from the Columbia PD. Four hours earlier a man slid into a woman's car while she shopped at Moser's and attacked her when she returned from buying groceries. She fought him off, and the man was still at large. The GA reporter had signed out a few hours earlier, so I printed off the release and immediately began writing. We posted the story as quickly as we could, but it still took about an hour to get it through the queues.
I started packing up and nervously wondered if they'd caught the guy. I felt apprehensive about biking over to Aaron's with an armed man still running around Columbia. The CPD Twitter page kept adding updates about the guy, but they all kept repeating what was in the release. I hung around.
At 11 p.m. decided to head home. But looking back, I don't think I actually thought I was leaving. I sensed something strange in the air. Then the phone rang.
Carolyn Heger told me she'd heard shots fired in the Hitt Street garage. She dropped to the ground and once it was over, she called me. I told her to start reporting from the apartment. I sent her phone numbers for the CPD. She called several times, but no one picked up. She tweeted some pictures and watched the scene unfold. She saw more than a dozen cop cars. Her boyfriend saw a body. Maybe two. We heard over the scanner that there had been a shooting with a baby involved. Everything was chaotic. At first, I assumed the worst. This man might have shot someone. He could still be on the loose. Our night news editor went downstairs with one of the sports editors to make sure the doors to Lee Hills were locked. One of the doors was open.
Carolyn called back. The scene seemed safe, so she was going down to the garage to talk to the police and if she could find them, some witnesses. A copy editor named Ethan Colbert put on a yellow media vest and got a reporter's notebook from our print news editor. I felt nervous sending him out, but the news editors didn't stop him, so I didn't say anything. I still wonder if I should have.
Carolyn called again to say she had talked with some witnesses and a few people who went to rescue their car from the garage. I told her Ethan was headed over to help. I asked her to keep calling the police. We received an alert from the MU police saying that the suspect from an earlier armed robbery had been killed. But they did not confirm the identity of the suspect. We all felt less nervous now. It appeared the man wasn't still at large. We put up a burst, and I started a story file.
Ethan called. He was going to cross the tape. Photographers came in and began uploading photos. Carolyn returned and started furiously typing. She'd gathered several witness accounts. Then something sad and strange happened. She received word that a few of her sorority sisters had been talking with Adair when he'd been shot. She asked me if she should call them. I paused. My immediate response was "yes, of course, let's call them to get that eye witness account." My second thought was a flashback of a semester's worth of learning from my reporting on traumatic events course. I paused and told Carolyn that we probably shouldn't call. The story was shocking enough, and I didn't want to hurt those girls. We quickly talked through it and agreed to leave them out. Looking back, I think we made a good choice. Carolyn took off and Ethan came in to write the top.
Their reporting blended perfectly into a story. It was seamless. We wrote a print version and then spent more time writing a more detailed online story. I don't have many recollections of time from that night. I know Carolyn left around midnight and I got to sleep around 3:30 a.m., but it is hard to remember everything that happened before and after those time stamps.
I do remember that everything felt collaborative. We didn't have time for anything except the work. We were hyper-focused on getting the information, verifying it and meeting the deadline. I noticed that my memories from that night are different from other memories of events not involving so much stress. Like we learned in class, some of the memories are super sharp and others are not in focus at all. I didn't feel hunger. I don't remember going to the bathroom. My normal human urges were paused. The next day I was wired. I could feel that my body was still on high alert.
I talked through the experience with some of the editors and that helped. I read the stories and the updates. I talked a lot with Aaron. I still have a lot of questions. My sense is that Mark Adair was a violent and brutal man, but I still believe the system failed him. Did he deserve to be shot to death in the Hitt Street garage Wednesday night? I don't think so. Why was this man who was so obviously a threat to society simply released into the world and then so quickly able to obtain a gun and threaten people? I'd like to see some Act 2 stories about this shooting. I'd like to learn more about who this man was and what the ramifications of the events of that night are. I'd really love to read a story about the woman who fought this guy off or how the women who were talking with him are coping with that traumatic experience. I'd also like to read more about the process people go through when they leave prison and receive parole. How often do people in similar situations completely lose control? This story seems like fertile ground for Act 2 and 3 reporting.
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