In the middle of our afternoon story meeting, the news director received a press release detailing a 3-year-old girl in Owensville, MO, had been shot in her backyard and was in critical condition at a hospital in St. Louis. I immediately volunteered to take this story. After making a call to the Gasconade County Sheriff's Department, the Sheriff agreed to do an on-camera interview with me to talk about what happened. With more than an hour to drive to get to the Sheriff, I grabbed my gear and hit the road.
Upon arriving at the Sheriff's office, I quickly unloaded my gear and began the interview. Sheriff Randy Esphorst would not release to me the name of the victim or who the shooter was, but was able to give me the facts of what led up to this horrible accident. While in the middle of our interview, the Sheriff received a call the little girl had died. I was the first journalist to be informed this young victim had not survived. After making a call to my producer and sharing this news on KOMU's twitter feed, I finished talking with the Sheriff.
Back on the road, I headed another 35 miles to Owensville. The Sheriff informed me the shooting took place in the little girl's back yard, located at her home on Highway EE. Upon finding the location, I pulled to the side of the road, which happened to have a bit of tilt to it. This was a bad idea, as it was also muddy, and my station car got stuck. The sun was also starting to go down, so I went into panic mode. I still needed b-roll of where the shooting took place and a reaction from a member of the community. After standing on the side of the road, Jeff Mades pulled over to help. It turns out he lives in Owensville and has a 3-year-old himself. He waited with me for a tow truck to get my car out of the ditch. While we chatted, he went on camera to share with me his reaction.
Meanwhile, across the street from where my car got stuck was a house sharing the backyard with the victim's home. This neighbor had seen me in distress and had also called a tow truck. As I asked him about the shooting, he got emotional and shared with me what had happened. He did not want to be identified or go on camera, but was willing to let me stand on his property to get b-roll of exactly where the accident occurred.
As I was shooting b-roll, two tow trucks arrived to pull out my car. While only one was needed, both drivers stuck around to make sure the car made it out okay. After the car was back on "flat" road and was ready to go, one tow truck driver shared with me he knew the bullets had been shot from a house around the bend. After thanking the gentlemen who called the first two truck, the neighbor, and both tow truck drivers, I headed down the street to get some b-roll of the shooter's home as well as a paper plate target on a nearby tree. This target was similar to the one the shooter had been aiming for, when his bullet missed and traveled 365 yards, striking the young girl in the head.
At this point, it was nearly dark, so I packed up the car and headed to the station. Just over 1.5 hours later, I was back at KOMU 8 writing and editing my package. I was quickly informed my package would be the lead story. Was I nervous? Petrified is more like it. However, my adrenaline quickly kicked in and I got into work mode. Less than 2 hours later, my package was ready to go-with 30 minutes until air. Not too bad for a first shift!
This is a reporting day I will always remember. While it would have been easy for me to give up or quit because of the car situation, I "pulled up my bootstraps" and did what my duty as a journalist is: getting the story straight to inform our viewers about this horrible accident. I will never forget how a minor "bump" in the road turned into getting the story.
Read my story about the Glasconade County shooting.
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