This column originally appeared in the April 21, 2015 edition of the (Provo) Daily Herald 
Veteran Daily Herald reporter Genelle Pugmire found herself in the middle of a breaking news situation Tuesday night in Provo when the City Center was locked down by police and SWAT members.
Our key editors had just dismissed from our daily afternoon news meeting to finalize what news stories would go online and what would be in print the next day when we heard police dispatchers talking about a man with a gun.
If you’ve ever visited our offices — and you are always welcome to come in — you’ve heard the police scanner squawking away. Mostly its conversations are about minor traffic crashes or other non-emergency situations.
As journalists, we screen out most of the chatter. I’m pretty sure I’ve honed those skills from an early age. While growing up my mother would listen to her little battery-powered transistor radio that she carried in her apron while she puttered around the house. It was always tuned to talk radio, Denver Broncos game analysis or chart-toppers such as Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick and other easy listening favorites.
But when we heard the words "gun," "bomb" and "mayor’s office" in the same sentence, almost in unison everyone in the newsroom said, “Did you hear that?”
A quick call to the Provo Police yielded only a busy signal. We immediately sent a photographer and a reporter to Provo’s City Center.
I sent a text message to Genelle asking where she was at that moment. A minute or two later she called and said police were locking down the third floor of the City Center after a report from police that there was possibly a man with a gun and a bomb in the building.
Genelle was covering the regular Provo Municipal Council work session when all of this started happening.
“I was on the phone with you when an officer with an AK-47 came in and said we needed to evacuate the building right now,” Genelle later told me.
I told her to stay safe and record everything that was happening.
Another call came in from Barbara Christiansen, who was the first reporter on the scene outside the building. She reported that crews were shutting down streets about two blocks in every direction — including the streets around the Covey Center for the Arts, where a group of young children was attending a dance class.
I then got this email from Genelle, who was still sitting on the third floor of the City Center taking notes, “Provo police notified the city council during Tuesday work session there was a man claiming he had a bomb and a gun on the third floor of the building. The council meets on the third floor. The Mayor’s office is on the opposite side. We are evacuating.”
By that time we had already had an initial news story posted to
heraldextra.com and were working on updates as fast as possible.
Genelle (@gpugmire) was tweeting as rapidly as possible, despite being assisted out of the building by police and Mayor John Curtis.
After the first 15 minutes or so, the chatter on the police scanner begin to take a less excited tone, indicating things were beginning to come under control. We began to think maybe it was a prank call. It later turned out it was actually a false alarm and police are now investigating the caller.
By early evening we had crafted a fairly detailed story about the situation. The question then became, “How do we play this in the newspaper?”
The advancement of the Internet as a breaking news tool is fabulous, but we are reminded every day that once we post the news of the day, we then prepare it for print.
Typically we don’t report false alarms as news items because it encourages attention seekers, but it is hard to ignore when the City Center is evacuated because of death threats on the city’s entire elected body.
That’s why you’ll find Genelle's and Barbara’s story — accompanied by Sammy Jo Hester’s photos on A1, above the fold today. You can find more content online in the form of video shot by videographer Casey Adams.
As journalists, we rarely find ourselves in the middle of news situations as Genelle was today; but when it happens it reminds us what it must be like for the people we write about.
My thanks go out to all those who were involved in Tuesday’s incident and to those who helped our staff be safe and get timely information to the people of Provo.
Daily Herald executive editor David Kennard can be reached at 801-344-2530 or
dkennard@heraldextra.com or on Twitter @davidbkennard.
