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A year ago today, I was just getting to work at the station for my morning weekend shift. I’m the only employee at the station on weekends until 1:30p usually. Today, I’ll be recounting what I experienced by the minute.. in this thread. #ElPasoStrong 1/
The day was unremarkable. I grabbed coffee at Starbucks on Airway, as I often do on my way into work. I like the mocha frappachinos. Anything to keep us cool in El Paso summers. It would end up being a clear, hot day — high of 102°. One of August’s hotter days. #ElPasoStrong
We use a digital scanner at @KTSMtv. Unfortunately, this method isn’t failproof. The digital feed was down all morning Aug.3. It wouldn’t be restored until 11:27a — nearly an hour after the first shots were fired in the store. #ElPasoStrong 3/
Around 9:30, our weekend photographer, Andrew Esparza, showed up to pick up gear for his first shoot. First up, a group of women trying to break the word record for most people breastfeeding at the same time. Scheduled for Bassett Place at 10a. #ElPasoStrong 4/
10:39a - A hateful, racist, man who traveled hundreds of miles from Allen, Texas to get ‘rid of Mexicans’ opened fire here. He walked up the center aisle and entered through the grocery doors. His last shots were fired at 10:45a. #ElPasoStrong 5/ – bei Grand Candela
10:53am - The first word I got something was wrong came from @SoccerBarista in a twitter DM. He works at the Starbucks at the Fountains. I thought it was something small until the phones started ringing off the hook. #ElPasoStrong 6/
10:54a - One of the first calls I got was from a woman who’d been ushered out the back doors of the store. There were metal shipping containers back there and people were hiding in them. She said it was unbearably hot, but they didn’t know where to go. 7/
She told me that she tried calling 911 to figure out where they should go — where was safe? But 911 was busy. The responsibility of the task has weighed heavily on me since. #ElPasoStrong 8/
Then another call came in — somewhere in the mix. It was someone who was seemingly an employee at the store. I never got her name. She was in the chip aisle with a woman who’d been shot and carried to the back of the store. #ElPasoStrong 9/
She was screaming for her children who she’d lost in the melee. She didn’t want to go w first responders. She needed to know where her children were. I now believe this was Jessica Garcia, whose husband Memo later died. They were selling Aguas Frescas that day. #ElPasoStrong 10/
The calls kept coming. I was working anxiously to confirm with police — but I also knew it wasn’t a fluke. I wrote a quick web blurb & sent our social notifications to “stay away from the area due to an ‘incident’ #ElPasoStrong 11/
We’re taught to confirm EVERYTHING. But 911 was jammed. The Police PIOs weren’t answering. The scanner was down. I didn’t want to panic people, but if I’m honest — I was panicking. #ElPasoStrong 12/
11:21a — 42 minutes after the first shots. Our first confirmation comes from EPPD. “Active shooter” - there it is, black and white. It’s real. New push alerts & social media posts were sent out on @KTSMtv 13/
This is when national media starts calling. @CNN @NBCNews @MSNBC - I’d sent notice in an email to all digital editors through Nexstar at this point. I was trying to pick up information, push out digital updates & answer phones. I was still alone at the station. #ElPasoStrong 14/
I’d already moved our photog Andrew as soon as I heard what was going on. He interrupted his interview w/the breastfeeding lady & she got a little upset. I hope she knows now why he had to go. I never found out if they broke the world record. #ElPasoStrong 15/
Our scheduled reporter for Saturday was @KappKtsm - not scheduled to come in until 1:30p. For some reason that day, she’d woken up early and was sitting on her bed already ready for work at 11am. She was first reporter on scene for @KTSMtv. #ElPasoStrong 16/
The first person to make it to the station was our operations manager, @ozziecarr - he immediately asked me to write an emergency crawl for the bottom of the screen while we worked to get our reporters & anchors in place to go into wall-to-wall coverage. #ElPasoStrong 17/
11:47a - emergency scanner finally started working. Keep in mind, it was nearly impossible to get into the Cielo Vista Walmart neighborhood at this point. They were searching for up to 3 suspects. One was in custody (later determined Crusius was only shooter). #ElPasoStrong 18/
I was finally hearing what was happening for the first time now that our scanner was back online. They were evacuating Cielo Vista Mall and nearby Bassett Place Mall. My house is in between both malls. #ElPasoStrong 19/
This is where I lose track of actual time. @tavo_aguirre was the first to sit down and ask me how he could help me. There was a major task at hand and it’s something that’s bothered me since that day... let’s discuss.... 20/
Excuse my language, but FUCK YOU to the people who kept sharing and posting awful videos & photos of victims who were dead & bloodied. Imagine if you were their families. Those images shared hundreds of times. @tavo_aguirre’s task was to delete them from our Facebook page. 21/
Most people can choose to watch or not watch gory things. But we don’t have that option in news. We see everything. We saw everything. It’s burned into our nightmares. I’m still angry at ppl who took graphic videos of the horror & shared it that day. 22/
Soon enough everyone was in place. @tavo_aguirre took the helm to produce the wall-to-wall coverage on air. @KTSMDanielMarin & @KOCOAlejandra anchored. On the scene we had @KappKtsm @TatianaKTSM & @SusyKTSM. The scene was chaotic, but they were outstanding. #ElPasoStrong 23/
Then @ColinDeaverTV & @SramirezEP came in and were dispatched to different places around town as the blood banks began overflowing with donors & the family reunification center opened at MacArthur Intermediate School, back in the Cielo Visa neighborhood. 24/
Sometime around 1p, we got a source tip that there were 18 casualties inside the Walmart. I asked "shot?" and the response was, "no. 18 dead." 25/
I was hesitant to push it out. I knew the source was good. I knew it was likely accurate, but it was so outlandish-- so unbelievable. But we went with it. We were the first to report the high number of fatalities --18-- on air. 26/
