I was assigned as the Public Information Officer at my agency for several years. I got along well with the members of the press for the most part and I only got myself burned a couple of times, and each time I learned something new. I say that I got myself burned, because the reporters are just doing what they are supposed to be doing, I was the one who got caught off guard, or forgot who I was talking to, or responded with a witty retort when I should have thought better of it. Anyway, one morning the university police received a call about a person down at the tennis courts parking lot. Now for clarification, this parking lot was literally just about 15 parking spaces, running alongside the city street, right on the edge of campus.
When officers arrived, it was clear that the person had been shot, and was already dead. Our detectives responded and began a murder investigation. The victim, it turned out, was neither student, faculty, nor staff of the university, and didn’t even live in the area. It appeared to be a body dump, which meant that he had been killed elsewhere and left on university property. Our Chief of Police, a retired member of the local city police called his former Chief and asked the city to take over the investigation, because it was clearly not university related, and the city had more resources to devote to this investigation. The Chief of the city police said, “No.”
The problem here, was that the city police department was taking a beating for having one of the highest murder rates in its history. The press was counting and even though the city was averaging about 15–20 murders a year, this year we were exceeding 40, for the third year in a row, and the year wasn’t anywhere near to completion. When the press began adding this murder to the city’s count, they responded with a “No way. That’s not our murder. That’s the University’s murder.” I was also fielding calls from the press asking why we were having so many murders, and I was responding that this was the university’s first murder in years, what were they talking about.
Ultimately, our detectives identified and arrested the suspect within 36 hours of the initial call. So on day three, when I received a call from a columnist from the local, nationally recognized newspaper, I was able to provide more information than I had previously.
The columnist was doing a story about the high murder rate in the city and wanted to know why the city wouldn’t investigate our murder. I explained that the investigating agency is almost always the originating agency, unless something directs the investigation to a different agency. The columnist answered back that this was all some kind of coverup as we both knew the murder actually took place in the city and that the city was just trying to spin their image as best they could. Had I not been able to give out the information, I would have been stuck for a good response, but because I had the answers, I told him the following:
Nope. The murder happened in county jurisdiction, more than two cities away from the big city. The victim and his buddy were stealing a moving truck from a construction site in a rural area in the mountains, but ran out of gas and abandoned it. A nearby homeowner, who we will call Craig, called the stolen truck in to the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies came out, contacted the owner and made arrangements for the owner to pick up the truck later. The deputies told Craig that if anyone comes and messes with the truck to call 9–1–1. The next day, the victim and his buddy came back with gasoline to finish stealing the truck. Craig came out with his pistol in his hand and ordered them to stay where they were until the deputies came back and arrested them. Victim and Buddy excused themselves, climbed into their car and drove off. Craig then fired a warning shot into Victim’s back. Buddy drove for a half hour, all while Victim bled to death in the passenger seat, to the tennis courts parking lot, twenty miles from the shooting location, and dumped Victim onto the cold asphalt. You know, as good friends do.
The columnist was disappointed and his coverup story went nowhere. But I noticed a definite change in the tone of the news coverage following the arrest. From things like “Random Murder Terrorizes University” to “Suburban Man Charged In Death Trying To Prevent Burglary.”