Shooting in Kansas City: Getting the facts

Terrible news — not long after after Kansas City police exchanged shots with a man in south Kansas City, a man fitting the same description walked into a nearby mall in south Kansas City and opened fire.

I was watching WDAF, Fox 4, the Fox-owned affiliate, at 4:42 p.m. when it broke into NASCAR race coverage to cut to its live reporter with the news that five people were shot and two people dead. In the background, a grisly image of the Starbucks' plate glass windows all shot out.

Anchor Tom Lawrence added a detail that revealed the kinds of choices news producers must make when news breaks: The station had waited until Jeff Gordon could safely be declared the win of that afternoon's NASCAR race before they broke in with the news.  (In fairness to Fox 4, there was several minutes of mostly waiting around for the race to restart, during which one must assume they would've interrupted had the reporter been on the scene.)

KMBC-9 ran a crawl at 4:44 saying that "multiple crews" were headed to the scene and that "there is no known information at this time," which wasn't true if you were watching Fox or reading KansasCity.com (where the first story posted at 4:38 p.m.). On Monday, KMBC news director Michael Sipes added: "We broke into coverage at 4:22pm with Larry Moore, Johnny Rowlands in the Helicopter and Marcus Moore on a live van and Chris Nagus on the phone.  Coverage then stopped at 4:33pm, because we needed crews to work the story out there."

 At 5 p.m., three out of four stations were live on the scene.

KCTV-5's Tom Wait reported four shot and two dead including the shooter, and claimed KCTV had been on the scene first. While he talked, KCTV showed electric video taken earlier, buttressing Wait's claim: cop cars racing into Ward Parkway center, cops running around, as well as video of a dozen red-shirted Target employees gathered nervously in the parking lot. (CNN would make heavy use of this video later on.) Photog Andrew Zimmerman took that. Then came the eyewitnesses, the most compelling of them Queea Miller, a woman parked just two cars down from the suspect, who ducked in terror and listened as the popping of the firearm grew more distant, and was soon replaced by the sound of police sirens, after which time she and her daughter dashed into a Pier 1 store. Another eyewitness said he heard shots and a man running by with blood on his face.

KCTV's Surae Chinn stood on the mall's north end, with Target as her backdrop. She and others would comment on what a wild, chaotic scene had developed at the mall. And soon details would trickle out that the terror had spread rapidly to all corners of the Ward Parkway Center in just a few minutes, as the shooter roamed the corridor.

Our first clue of this was the news stations could not immediately nail down where the shooting, or shootings, actually took place. While Fox 4 said it was a Starbucks, video of the scene clearly showed it was a mall entrance, not a store entrance, whose glass was shattered by gun blasts.  The eyewitnesses that spoke on the phone and on camera to news stations all came from the Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse, which is to the south of the entry door. Still others inside the Target store, at the north end of the mall, and the Dillard's store at the south end, would report hearing gunshots. A single, fairly short corridor connects the stores in Ward Parkway Center.

Facts poured in from eyewitnesses. The cineplex at the other end of the mall shut down, police officers running in and telling moviegoers to get out. Target employees gathered in the parking lot, all safe and accounted for. An "air-conditioned city bus" became an interview area, as eyewitnesses were herded in to talk with police. Frantic parents arrived at the mall from all directions, looking for loved ones. Reporters and anchors begged onlookers to stay away from Ward Parkway Shopping Center.

Helicopters buzzed overhead. KMBC-9 and Fox 4 started covering the crime scene from overhead. They would be joined by KCTV's chopper and, eventually, KSHB. KMBC-9 went to a split scene so it could continue covering the NBA playoffs ... and I had a flashback to the white Bronco chase.

KSHB, aka "NBC Action News," was MIA until 5:20, as the station continued to cover a double overtime hockey game. And then all they had, at first, was a single reporter at the gas station where the police officer was shot.

KSHB news director Debbie Bush emailed Monday: "Just so you know…we broke into the hockey game (I have the angry e-mails to prove it) between 4:30 and 4:45 with live pictures and reporter from the mall.  We were not MIA."

By 5:26 p.m., every station was taking a breather. Even KCTV signed off "a little bit early," said co-anchor Karen Fuller, in order to get through a backlog of commercials ... before returning at 5:30 to continue covering the carnage. As I said, I don't envy the choices news producers have to make.

At 5:29 KMBC is back, saying that "as Johnny Rowlands has been showing you all afternoon long," which I guess means the past 29 minutes.

At 5:30 KCTV is confirming that three are dead, including the suspect, gunned down by a KCMO police officer. Two of the dead were shot in the parking lot. It's also possible additional victims drove themselves to the hospital. Surae Chinn reminds us that "there's still a lot we have not confirmed," including the cop shooting link.  There is the remarkable detail that police — security guards? — were ordering moviegoers out of the plex just moments after they heard the pop of gunshots. Things seemed to be happening at incredible speed, or else witnesses are condensing their timelines.

But as Chinn's talking, 10 feet away from her, KCMO police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sanders is talking to KMBC-9 live. Chinn even points out that Sanders is talking to news crews. Well, why isn't KCTV-5 covering it? In fact, only 9 is covering it live. We know NBC is out of the loop, but Fox 4 has a crew there.

Sanders reveals that at least two people have phoned in from emergency rooms to say they were injured in the shopping center's parking lot. It becomes clear that most of the shooting happened in the parking lot, not at either store, that after the killings in the parking lot, the gunman strolled into the mall and was walking around with a gun.  That's where he was killed.

Six minutes later, KMBC-9 is still the only station in town covering this.  I call KMBC's assignment desk. Why are you the only ones covering this? "I don't know," says the woman who picks up. "Marcus (Moore) just called me a few minutes ago to say, I'm going to have Tony Sanders, so be ready."

I switch over at 5:38 and NBC action news has finally roused its chopper. KCTV-5 was apparently waiting for an "exclusive," as Chinn is now finally getting to stick her microphone in the face of Tony Sanders.

Will any of this matter worth a hill of beans?  On one level, of course not.  Three Four people are dead, all but one of them innocents.  Others, including a police officer, are hurt.  Hundreds if not thousands of patrons of a busy shopping center on a Sunday afternoon just got the scare of their lives. But on another level, when things like this happen, word spreads electrically and, for better or worse, we turn to TV for the latest.

Based on what I have seen for the past 62 minutes, KCTV-5 and KMBC-9 showed they have the resources and the desire to get onto this story and stay on it. Fox 4 did a fine job, and I don't see any point in knocking their coverage.  But watching 5 and 9, there was an urgency there that — again, for better or worse — is why we turn to TV for the latest. Watching the 20-something reporters on KCTV and KMBC, there were times where it felt like their jobs were on the line.

We know that when a thunderclapper rolls into our area, all four stations will, without fail, clamor for our attention. That's because they have hours of warning to prepare for the storms. But on a Sunday afternoon, when a storm of violence comes out of nowhere, when TV staffing levels are thin and it's an all-hands-on-deck situation, it's interesting to see who really does get all their hands on deck.

And now, at 5:48 p.m., everyone is taking a deep breath. "NBC Action News" — which did finally get a crew on the scene but still looks woefully outmanned on this story — has moved on to sports. Fox 4 is doing the weather, about to throw to the sports anchor. Even KMBC has gone to weather and sports. KCTV-5, your CSI channel, kept the crime scene investigation going another two minutes, when weathercaster Katie Horner broke in to tell us what a nice day it was (but also apologized for breaking in).

At 5:54, KMBC is live with Sgt. Tony Sanders again before cutting out at 5:56 in order to bring you ... a taped editorial from KMBC general manager Wayne Godsey, decrying the "11th-hour shenanigans" of outgoing City Council members and urging the incoming mayor to investigate every decision made by lame-duck officials.

And then, at 6 o'clock sharp, it's back to regular programming. Prime time starts early on Sunday.