Trouble in paradise???

[Harpoon]

Hoy! So I walk into work this afternoon (I'm the "reporter" today) and there's a happy little faxed press release from one of the local police departments.

Apparently some knucklehead decided to go and start shooting in some other person's apartment... Shot up one guy in the legs and blew another guy's hand to shreds with a shotgun...


This isn't "THAT" kind of town....


Been working the phones all afternoon and evening trying to get more info. I used one of my TV news contacts to get a photo of the suspect who's still on the loose and I'm trying to track down the name of the guy who got shot in the hand so I can ask a local medical center about his condition.

Then I find out that the guys who work in the press room here at the paper KNOW the suspect.


When I was in the hospital someone shot a local cop I know and there was a big tado with the shooter being holed up in a house and all. One of the other photographers here (a close friend of mine) was at the scene covering the stand-off for the paper while I was sucking air through a hose in Cleveland.

Was kind of upset I missed that one, it would have been me shooting that day if I wasn't having heart problems....


Now this one's kinda making up for it.


This area has less than one shooting incident every two or so years, if that. We've got our fair share of crime and drugs and whatever, but we're nothing like big cities around the country.


7am this guy decides he's going to shoot some people... I was dead asleep at 7am, why couldn't he just sleep in???


Some people are just stupid.

 

[Rich]

Hey consider moving to Detroit, you couldn't keep up with those kind of stories. Seems like twice a day every day!!
And no I'm happy to say I don't live in Detroit.

 

[Harpoon]

Once upon a time I almost took a job in Detroit with a video production outfit....


They couldn't offer me an advance of some kind to set up living accomidations for myself until the first few paychecks came through.



I'll stay here for now.

I got front page with the story and a by-line which I wasn't expecting because when I first got the story it was just a re-write of a press release.

Oh yeah, and then I got an "annonimous" (did I spell that right?) tip to boot.

The caller said he was the brother of one of the guys who was shot. He said the guy the cops are looking for and two OTHER people were there at the house earlier and thought they had left some drugs behind. They went back at 7am to get the drugs, with a shotgun along just in case. They moved into the house and found victom one sitting in the living room, half asleep. They asked where the drugs were and victim one doesn't know. During this exchange victim two comes out from a bedroom to see what's going on, he reaches for the shotgun and gets a few fingers blown off, then victim one gets shot in the legs before suspect one and an accomplis bust out of the house and into a waiting car being driven by a third suspect...


None of this was in the police report....


I can't use most of it. I tried calling the hospital where victim two is (the one who lost the fingers) but they wouldn't give me an update on his condition unless I was there in person.

Confidentiality which I'll allow more than maybe another reporter might....


Small town, you gotta milk it for all it's worth. Most of the daily news is happy ltitle stories about kids winning poster contests at school stories about how little money there is for municipal budgets.


Anyhow, I think my work is done for now... Should probably go home and snuggle up to the wife for a while. I have a doctor's appointment with the ENT bright and early tomorrow morning. Ugh...