Since last year, I’ve been covering the political beat with Reporter Dave Bryan for CBS2 and KCAL9. That’s made my action news life a little more cerebral and a lot less adventurous.

I’m okay with that.

I’d been somewhat disenchanted with the routine nature of the general assignment stories I’d been covering. Working with Dave has been great and I actually feel as if I’ve been making a positive contribution instead of just being the “news zombie” I was turning into.

This week, Dave is on Vacation and I’m back covering GA (General Assignment) until next week when he returns.

Out the gate on my Monday morning (which is about two in the afternoon), I was assigned to take Reporter Serene Branson and head out to support the day-side crews covering the pursuit that had ended in the Valley Village section of North Hollywood.

A man carrying a rifle had led police on a high speed chase, ditched his car and barricaded himself in a home in the neighborhood.

Before my shift, I had been trying to get to my favorite Tai restaurant lunch spot. 

It wasn’t happening.

Serene and I got on he scene, touched base with the crews that had been out there since earlier in the day.

We talked to some neighbors and waited in the hot sun for the guy to give himself up or for the police to enter the house and drag him out.

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop-pop, pop, pop, pop-pop, pop! That’s what we heard when the police began firing tear gas into the house. It sounded like a dozen or more tear gas canisters were fired into the house.

Surprisingly, the suspect gave himself up. When it gets to the tear gas point, I tend to figure the guy is not coming out and wants to taken out by the police.

They call it “suicide by cop” and it’s a real thing.

With the suspect in custody, the police set up fans and waited for the tear gas to dissipitate so they could examine the house. We spent the next few hours gathering more on the story in order to put together a wrap up of the day’s events for the later newscasts.

We picked up a second man to help with the live shots. I cut a package with Serene.

We went live for the ten and eleven o’clock newscasts. Other than getting an interview with the woman who owns the home where the suspect had made his last stand, the evening was pretty uneventful.

Not a bad day at all. It made me happy to know that I managed in the last six months to not completely forget how to cover breaking news.

(It was great to work with and catch up on idle chit-chat with my co-workers.)

That being said, I’m still eager to get back to the political beat.

In my mind, I’m still more Riggs than Murtaugh, but my interest (tolerance?) in standing around in the sun behind yellow tape isn’t EVER going to be what it was.

Sure, I’m alway glad to go where I’m needed for the station, but there are lots of bad guys that need to be stopped. I’m convinced that covering politics is the best way for me to help with that.

Watch Dave Bryan in the 9PM newscast.  While the people Dave and I cover don’t generally carry rifles or guns, most of the time the 9pm newscast is where you’ll find the real bad guys.