October 13, 2015: Morning After Firefighters Killed in Building Collapse
The massive building fire in Kansas City, MO began just before the evening newscasts. We'd learned just hours before the morning newscast that two firefighters had died and two were badly injured. I created a special open with sound and information we received overnight.
The Kansas City Royals also had a big playoff win in Houston where we had live crews. We had to strike a balance between something devastating and something exciting.
On top of all of that it became clear after the first block that one of my anchors was too sick to be on set and I had to change my show from the booth.
April 9, 2016: Afternoon Detective was Shot and Killed in the Line of Duty
A police detective was responding to a call about a suspicious person. That suspect shot - and as we found out after the newscast - killed the detective. The suspect carjacked a woman's car with her two children inside, then led police on a chase through Kansas and Missouri. The manhunt for the suspect ended with a shootout with police on a busy interstate at the start of rush hour. We had 6 crews covering every part of this story as we got new information.
We also were watching for chances of severe weather moving into the area, along with severe weather in other parts of the country.
January 3, 2017: Lawn Mower Shop Explosion
About an hour before my newscast, we started getting calls and emails into the newsroom asking if there had been an earthquake or explosion. Viewers described feeling their homes shake and hearing what sounded like an explosion. After a lot of research and calls we figured out there had been an explosion at a lawn mower repair shop just off the highway. Viewers who knew the owner told us he stored a lot of ammunition at the shop which was making it dangerous for firefighters. We rerouted all of our crews to the scene and launched our chopper pilot. I had to completely threw out my rundown and added an anchor as the regular 9 pm anchor was supposed to solo that night. There were also sub-zero temperatures so I had to keep crew safety in mind because the water from the fire hoses was freezing on contact.