Good?

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

The second I arrived at the station today, I got sent out. A man was shot dead up north. A dayside photographer was already on the scene, but they wanted a nightside crew out there. The crime reporter, Emily and I packed up and headed out.

The scene was pretty typical; lots of police cars, lot of police officers, crime scene tape, other news crews. The police had been out there for a while, and the other photographer had already shot a lot of video, and it was only 2 o'clock. Needless to say, we weren't really in a hurry. In the next three hours I shot some more video, we found a concerned neighbor to interview, edited a VOSOT and went live at 5. A pretty average afternoon, all in all.

Since we knew we would advance the story for the 9 o'clock show, Emily set up a ride along with an officer on directed patrol. After our live shot, we drove up to the North Division to meet our man.

Officer Martin drives an unmarked car and dresses in plain clothes. As part of the directed patrol, he covers crime "hot spots." The police department can focus energy on problem areas or specific crimes, like today's homicide. Tonight, he was to be out searching for today's homicide suspect.

We loaded up in his van and I slid in the front seat with my camera. Officer Martin told us that the homicide unit had a good lead on the suspect's location. Instead of driving around, Martin told us we could go with him to the hotel where they thought the suspect was holed up. Officers with the homicide unit were gathering to make a move.

Dude. We had a front row seat to a suspect arrest. They restricted what we could shoot, and didn't let us shoot while they got the guy, I don't know, something about not wanting us to be shot... But I got some great video of the officers searching the suspect's car and driving away with the suspect. And no one else had it.

Our little excursion got us back a little late, but it was worth it. Emily knocked out the writing, and I edited quickly and we made it by 9.

I love days like today when everything falls together and I'm out of the newsroom the whole day. Besides that, the end product was actually something I'm proud to put on TV.