Friday, February 08, 2008
Shooting at Missouri TC meeting kills 5
Sometimes this job scares me.I heard about this shooting at a Missouri Town Council meeting and couldn't believe it actually happened. Maybe it seemed surreal because I spend a lot of my reporting life in Town Council meetings just like this one. I'm there for the fights. I'm there when people get riled up. I'm there through it all. And I know how crazy it can get.
Five people were killed by a disgruntled resident who stormed into a town council meeting and opened fire. A reporter for the local paper was shot in the hand. Another reporter told her eyewitness account of the scene.
I think what's scary about the Missouri incident is that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent this from happening. And that the reporters who were there covering probably some benign thing, were just caught in the line of fire.
My boss heard about it on CNN and we started talking about it.
It's crazy, we agree. Sounds like something that would have happened in the town I cover. I'm silent for a minute. Then:
"I think if that did happen, I probably would have gotten shot," I say.
Between the enemies I've made during my time covering this town and people upset at my paper as an institution, I hate to think it, but I probably would have been in the crosshairs.
My boss looks at me and gives me a less than reassuring smile.
Labels: fear, Job survival, shooting
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Well, shoot! The next time I go to a Town Council meeting I'm going "vested" up.
G-A-unit!
Dammit Aaron.
I really was gonna say something, but now...
Damn you, boy. Lol.