This was the street not sure of the house number. We then moved further on down to a house on Lamprey it was upper middle class when I was a teen. I sure the hell don't remember it like that. ( I remember distinctly listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller when it came out on that street). WOW!!! I lived on corona lane back in the 80's. If I didn't have kids I'd probably go check it out. In the daytime the most dangerous thing you will face (aside from really crappy drivers) is running into a shopping cart with your car. I also grew up in that area, and drive through sometimes. I think the concept is cool but in practice it didn't turn out so well with time.
#Wicrest beechnut shooting tv#
After confirming with the night editor that it had arrived safely, I said goodbye to one of the TV reporters.People think about neighborhoods like this Instead, I tapped out the story on my iPhone, then forwarded it downtown. I keep a laptop computer in the office: It's about the same size as a hang glider and just as unwieldy in the cramped front seat of a company car.
As I scribbled on my notepad, I could see the TV crews setting up for their evening newscast – running out power cables and setting up camera tripods. I went back to my car and began combining all the information into an article. He ran into the bathroom but gave up within minutes. The undercover officers opened fire at him but missed. A second surrendered almost immediately while a third dashed into the McDonald's, still carrying his pistol. One dumped his load of weed in the drive-through lane and ran towards a nearby apartment complex. Police officials said they were carrying guns and bags of marijuana. By coincidence, the crash had been witnessed by a pair of undercover investigators assigned to a multi-agency narcotics task force. He said three men ran from the car crash outside the McDonald's. (This just in: Journalists are incorrigible gossips.)Ī few hours later, a Houston police spokesman confirmed what I had heard about earlier that day.
We also spend a few minutes chatting with each other about mundane topics – what our kids are doing and tidbits about other reporters. We all do the same thing – work the crowds in a quest for someone with something interesting to say. I know most of the television journalists in Houston we regularly bump into each other out on the streets. I walked around the crime scene so I could get a look at it from another vantage point and see if there was anything I missed. He didn't see much and wisely ran out the back when he heard the gunfire. I found a man who had been inside the McDonald's at the time of the shooting. I was raised to say "sir" and "ma'am." I'm representing the Chronicle.
#Wicrest beechnut shooting full#
Crime scenes are like that: full of misinformation, full of sketchy stories that somebody heard from somebody. He said somebody had told him about a baby being shot. "The cops shot a baby in the McDonald's." Police officers usually swoop away any witnesses to a crime, but sometimes a diligent reporter can find one they missed. I walked through the crowd, asking if anyone had seen anything. Police later confirmed that two people involved in the drug deal fled that scene, only to crash into a car in front of the fast food restaurant. A brother and sister walking on a sidewalk there were struck by stray rounds – the only injuries in either incident. I learned that the scene at the McDonald's was somehow connected to an alleged drug deal a few blocks away that had erupted into gunfire. "Nothing says good parenting like giving your kid a boost so he can get a closer look at a crime scene," I said to myself. The story would develop in the coming hours.Ī crowd of onlookers was quickly forming in the shopping center parking lot – including families with children.
Even with that meager information, I had enough to send a few paragraphs to, the Houston Chronicle's website. The officers were not injured, and apparently neither were the people they had been shooting at. I didn't know much at this point except that it was a scenario where police officers had fired at someone. They had the look of undercover narcotics investigators – disheveled but beefier than your average methamphetamine tweeker. I saw a few men in civilian clothes with badges on chains around their necks. Houston police detectives in business suits were milling around the McDonald's parking lot while uniformed crime scene officers took photographs and gathered evidence. This just in: Gray Matters is an incorrigible gossip. Mike Glenn covers crime for the Chronicle.