Journals | |
| February 1999 | |
| Being a photojournalist, I am sent out often to crime scenes, car accidents and fires. Recently, I responded to a ambulance call for a gun shot victim. The only portion of the call that I actually heard was "Medic 1 respond to ****** (address) for a male subject with a gunshot wound to the head." Now for those of you who don't know Victoria, TX, Victoria is a small town. It is not often that we hear calls like this. So I grabbed a reporter and we drove to the scene. As I drove up, I noticed people gathering at the street corner in front of the house named in the call. Walking up, I noticed the paramedics weren't rushing about, and came to the conclusion the victim wasn't going to make it. Looking further around the scene I noticed some people gathered in the yard with the police asking questions. Then I saw what I am trained to shoot, emotions. I looked over the scene carefully without lifting my camera. At this point it was becoming more obvious the scene would be ruled suicide. I never saw the actual scene inside the house where the shooting had taken place. I have seen it before and have no desire to see it again. It took a while to even point my camera in the direction of the family. I backed away as far as I could and shot from a distance. I hid my face behind my camera as I often do to escape the emotion of a scene, yet this time, the tears didn't stop. | |
| Friends and family members comfort one another at the scene of a shooting. | 
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| I must confess that I thrive to shoot people's emotions. However, I will say that sadness is the one emotion we could all do with less of. | |
| © 1999 Timothy C. Baker | |
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