We bowled a spare

Living the previous 4 days, I had no idea what to expect.

It was Friday.

It was dress down day and I was going to dress down.

And something rare for me, I was actually chiming 'thank God it's Friday.' I never say that. I usually never have a week that wears me do so much I am counting the hours until quitting time.

Davon Crawford was still at large so I knew the day would be busy, action-packed, grueling, and maybe even at times, nerve wracking.

Driving home yesterday was quite eerie. Knowing a mass murderer was out there, I skedaddled into the house and quickly locked everything up. Chills up and down. It truly felt like a city on guard.

Little did I know, only an hour after my shift began today, the craziness would continue! It did. This was the day Davon Crawford would be found, take his own life and the 24-hour manhunt would come to an end.

Having more is not necessarily better.

Thursday night, we had (when all was said and done) 14 staffers working the shooting story (in the building and in the field) and 4 more available if needed, but honestly, those 4 contributed nothing to the progress of the shooting story, never touched it. Our impeccable communication chain helped us win!

Friday when I walked into the building, there were 24 people physically in the newsroom and editing and another 12-14 in the field. 38 people total. Honestly, at crunch time, having more staffers and more chiefs caused a bit of chaos. Multiple people were leading the charge calling crews in the field, calling reporters in the field. Literally running around the newsroom.

It's times like these when I have a plan, and it's usually very good, but I lay low because frankly, it's not worth contributing to the craziness and communication frenzy. I don't want to fight city hall!!

I made sure I personally kept in contact with my crews in the field so that I WAS IN THE LOOP!

I kept the usual doors of communication open with my producers, ej and sigac, and the control room while we were prepping for cut-ins.

I received a number of updates on the Davon Crawford case and disseminated them to the masses.

The ONLY good thing about having extra staffers (videographers mainly) was having the luxury to deploy them --Mike Greene & George Payamgis--with SWAT and the US Marshals. They were in the neighborhood when the raid went down and were on site within minutes. Both crews said they were 1st on the scene.

I'm proud to say the momentum on the story we absolutely owned Thursday night continued Friday afternoon and evening.....

It's quite conflicting getting 'excited' so to speak about such a tragic story. But being in the business we are in, the adrenalin flows as the action escalates. It's the nature of what we do. We have to report the news. We must gather facts, try to get them first, share the details before anyone else on air, web, and phone and do it all IMMEDIATELY.

I think we won this story. But again, using the term 'won' is inappropriate when 7 people were shot and 6 of them died.

This story is far from over and I certainly hope we do not drop it. There are at least 2 young children out there who must live with and deal with this horrific memory.

This was definitely a rough week. It began disastrously on Monday, but in the end I think we charged full steam ahead, rebounded, and wound up 'bowling a spare.'