These immigrants with no drivers' licenses, no insurance and no Ingles came out of a convenience store, slammed their car in reverse without looking, hit a little girl who was riding her bicycle through the parking lot and dragged her 25 feet before the screaming from other people on the property convinced them to stop. She was transported before I got there.
I arrived in time to see the immigrants being questioned and jumped out to shoot from the sidewalk. The owner of the convenience store came out and screamed at me to get off his property. Since I wasn't on his property, he threatened to beat my ass. Then he threatened to call 30 guys to come beat my ass. He said he didn't want his property photographed.
I remained calm throughout and didn't argue with him other than to let him know I couldn't leave until I had the video I needed. He stood in front of my camera to physically block my shot. I moved. He picked up a "for rent" sign someone had discarded on the sidewalk and used it to block my shot. I went across the street. He drove his truck into the street and blocked my shot with it. Whenever I would move, he would move. The cops just stood there watching him block traffic.
I was about to climb on top of my truck, where he couldn't possibly block me, when he suddenly had a change of heart. He said, "Okay, you got two minutes to get what you need, then get outta here. You gonna film those f*ckers, right?" (pointing to the immigrants)
"Yeah," I said, "I need video of them especially."
"Good," he said, and sped away.
I shot what I needed and was packing up my stuff to leave, when he came speeding down the alley next to the place and stopped near me. Here we go again, I thought.
When he pulled up, he said, "Listen, can I talk to you a minute?" First, he apologized for his behavior and said he knew I had a job to do. Then he explained that the little girl who was hit was his daughter. But she wasn't actually his daughter, although he was the only father she had ever known. The girl belonged to his ex-girlfriend, who was a drug addict and had run off with another man five years earlier, leaving the little girl with him to raise.
This guy had owned this neighborhood store for years, so the woman knew where to find him. In fact, he and his situation were widely known in the neighborhood, so it wasn't as if he were hiding. But he was afraid that if this woman saw coverage of the accident on television, wherever she was, that she would show up and try to take the girl from him. Since he didn't actually have legal custody of her, he was afraid she might be successful if she tried.
I asked if he knew how the girl was doing, and he said that's where he had gone when he left, to call the hospital to find out, and that she wasn't injured other than a bruise or two. He said, "I was a little outta my mind before I knew she was okay. That's why I acted like I did." Then he apologized again. He did ask whether I might get the coverage toned down if possible, but he also said he knew we would have to run it and didn't blame me for it.
After all that, I felt kinda bad about it. My family has been through a custody battle, so I know exactly what this guy was trying to avoid. Even though that woman abandoned her kid, the law says she has the right to challenge any custody claim and actually favors awarding custody back to her! Knowing the story made me understand how helpless this guy felt, seeing his little girl run over (yes, he witnessed it), then seeing television cameras arrive, bringing the very real possibility of losing his family.
I don't know whether anything happened as a result of our coverage, but at least we only ran a VO in one show. The producer wasn't very interested in it since the girl wasn't maimed or killed.