Double Shooting, Double Time

Friday offered breaking news on both sides of the market. Our side came at 7:30 in the morning out of Lincoln County, which is Gina's territory. We received a call that a double shooting with one dead had taken place off of Mud River Road. Once Gina got it confirmed with dispatch, she and I loaded up in Unit 4 and headed out on the long winding road that is known as Route 10. An hour later, we were on Mud River Road when a Hamlin police cruiser passed us heading toward the city. I noticed a silhouette in the back of the cruiser, and told Gina I thought it was the suspect. Our competitor's vehicle behind the cruiser confirmed my suspicions.

We made a U-turn and tried to catch up with the two vehicles. When we got to the police station, we found out that the suspect had already been taken inside. We also found out that our competitor was able to get some video of the suspect, not good. Gina went inside and talked to some of the officers to find out when we might be able to get some of the man accused of shooting two people. She was told that it would be several hours before they would be moving him anywhere. We decided it would be best at this point to head out to the scene and get some information and video.

Once again on Mud River Road, we found ourselves searching for the side-road the incident took place on. We passed the road twice, turned down a wrong road, followed two sets of bad directions until finally a group of men flagged us down the right road. This took about forty-five minutes. Finally, frustrated and worried we arrived on scene.
The shooting took place on the road. Apparently, the victims were driving and the shooter was walking or laying in wait, a detail the police could not or would not say was the case. Either way, one victim laid were he fell almost three hours earlier. The other victim was in surgery at a hospital in Huntington. I got busy shooting as much of the scene as I could. I had no idea of the details so I shot anything that looked relevant.

Gina did the reporter thing. Alot of the family was on scene, including the surviving victim's wife. We were able to get an interview with her pretty easily. This was the only source of information any of the media outlets had. The police were still not releasing any information at this point, so we had to rely on what the family/witnesses were saying. Every witness in this case is family, in fact the whole road is inhabited by relatives. Even the suspect and victims are related.

To complicate the story even further, there were about four different Stephens involved. Gina and the other reporters sorted out the complications as much as possible as quickly as possible...it was getting close to Noon and everyone needed to get info on the air. Gina took her notes and headed away from the scene to attempt to find a spot where she had phone service. We didn't have the manpower or the time to try to get a live shot up so we would have to settle for a phoner. Our main competitor attempted a live shot but couldn't get the signal they needed and had to settle for a phoner also. Gina was unable to get cell service but was allowed to use the phone belonging to the same guys who had flagged us down earlier. Thankfully, we were all even again. This was good news for us after having so much trouble in the beginning, now if we could just get a shot of the subject we could level the field completely.

After the Noon phoner, Gina and I headed back to town to wait at the police station. No more information was going to be given at the scene and we had been pushed back about two-hundred yards so it was time to try to get that most valued shot of the suspect that one competitor already had. We went to the police station and waited.


We found out that it would still be awhile before the suspect would be brought out of the station and taken his arraignment. Gina and I killed the time talking with the competition, who was waiting to try to get better video of the suspect as backup. Time ticked by slowly and each of us suffered from fatigue that worsen with the heat. While we waited we were able to get an interview with the investigating officer, who was unable to provide any more details but could confirm some things we had gathered from the family.

After two hours of waiting, the suspect was finally brought outside from the station. I grabbed some video of the police putting him in the cruiser and then jumped into unit 4 to head over to the courthouse. At the courthouse, we did the mandatory "walk-down" with the suspect. My lens set on the suspect's face with Gina holding the microphone close to him in case he decided to answer her questions. The walk-down continued to the magistrates where the arraignment was set to take place. All of us, including the suspect sat inside the magistrate's office waiting for the magistrate.

Ten minutes later we are informed that it is going to be at least another hour before the arraignment can take place. We don't have time to wait around. Gina had been working for twelve hours so far and I was on my fifteenth. It was time to pack in it, we had an hours drive back to the station still.


Gina logged video while I drove the winding road as fast as possible back to the station. She had the script pretty much written by the time I pulled into the parking lot. It didn't take her long to voice the package and pass it on to me to cut for air. I had it done in under thirty minutes from the time we arrived at the station. I threw the tape to the ingestor, asked another photog if he would cut the VO/SOT and headed for my house, another forty-minute drive. It had been my longest day on shift since the Emmons Fire two-years ago.


One more thing...For anyone keeping track, 6 more days until the move North.