It was last week and I was working on a story over at LAX.  We had finished our last live shot, I was  dropping the mast and putting away gear.

We got a call.

A high speed chase.  Go catch it.

We sort of caught up to it after the suspect crashed into a tree in the City of Paramount.

“Sort of?”

Yeah, well, we were pretty far from where the crash happened.  Like, several blocks away.

The station still wanted a live hit, so we didn’t have time to try find a side street with a better view.  One of my fellow photographers arrived and we did a quick hit for the newscast which had continued past its’ normal sign off.

Things then got a bit more interesting.  Another one of our photographers had managed to find a side street with a much better view of the acition.

 

A little too close to the action.

The tree the suspect hit is the large one with the blue light below it.  Walking down the sidewalk or standing beside a camera actually kind of put you in the line of fire.

After the live shot, we made our way over to help and I couldn’t help but wonder how the police pushing us further back.

I tend not to question what anything that actually helps us to do our job.

Stand off situations are mostly dull so, I’m not bothered that I only stayed until 1am.

The suspect was still sitting in his car when we took off.  With an extra live shot after having worked a full shift, it was an odd end to a pretty typical day.

Maybe I just need to remind myself, working in news means there is no such thing as a typical day.

(BTW – A couple hours after I left, the suspect was shot, but survived.)