"I got the call from a very frantic chief of staff at 8.30pm on a cold
Tuesday night. It was the classic "Man with a gun", scenario. A disturbed
man with a cowboy hat had the duty sergeant of the Central Police Station
in Perth held up with a gun. The area around the scene was blocked off
for half a mile. A cameraman's nightmare. The reporter and I were not
actually told not to go in. Just a firm "You can't get through here."
from the police. There was a command post a mile from the scene but
we were not going to get anything worthwhile there. We searched the
local street directory for a lane or track into the siege area and found
a way in behind a cricket ground that was near the scene. It was a 1/2
mile walk to a clump of bamboo near the river and only fifty yards from
where the man had the police held up.
Just in front of us near our bamboo hideout were three police officers
crouching near a laneway. They didn't know we were only a few yards
behind them. We had to speak in whispers so we wouldn't get sprung.
The scanner was turned down so low that I had difficulty hearing it
right up to my ear. We sat there shivering with cold and covered with
mosquitos for nearly four hours until we saw the ambulances arrive.
Always a sign the end is near. I stood up and pressed the record button
on my aging Betacam. (Filter 1 with 18db gain) The NP1 camera battery
had one foot in the grave and the warning light was flashing like a
beacon on top of the camera. The police officers in front noticed us
advancing from the rear and indicated to us to get down. At 2.33am the
Tactical Response Group ( SWAT) called out to the gunman who is now
on the same side of the street and heading towards us. PUT THE GUN DOWN!.
PUT IT DOWN!. The gunman turned away from us and walked the other way
up the street. PUT THE GUN DOWN! He started to raise one of the guns
he had and... CRACK CRACK CRACK...... The gunman was hit by twenty three
bullets and died instantly slumped up against the wall of the cricket
ground. I rushed the tape back to the station and I got home at 4.20am.
I pulled the top off a can of Emu Export and sat in the darkness on
the front porch of my house. My wife mumbled something from the bedroom
about me being quiet when I get home so late from work."
More
Photog "Whatchashoot" Stories
-"Would
you ever stop shooting video to help at a scene"
"I had been on scene for 10 mins when a fireman
yells: "There's someone under this van! We gotta move this thing!"
There was no tow truck around. I was standing about 10 feet from the
van" More...
-My Nightmare
"Come to find out a cop had been shot as well,
they killed a guy, and MY CAMERA ISN'T WORKING!!!"
-Flooded
Fido
"It
was weird doing the breast stroke and occassionally feeling your foot
hit a car's roof or antenna."
-"I watched a guy die today"
"I see a head move, then a hand. Both slightly
stained with blood, but not much. I figure the guy is coming too and
basically waking up from his drunk. Not the case.. he was gasping
for air."
-Chopper Crash
"He got to about a thousand feet and his
tail is cut off and the chopper starts a death spiral."
-Deer Me
"Just as I pass the deer, it is coming back
into my headlights, WHOOOOAAAA! "
