Day 344/365

     This morning I covered a status hearing of sorts where a circuit court judge turned down the plea deal of a man who's one of three, (plus one who's still at large), charged in connection with the death of a 6-year-old girl. The shooting, which resulted in the girl's death and her father in critical condition, happened this past August when Saginaw was finishing off an extremely violent summer that resulted in the city breaking its 20-year homicide record. Notorious for its "no snitch code," Saginaw residents rallied for that code to be broken, and seem to have been successful as one of the men involved is now testifying against the two alleged shooters. 

Day 275/365

     Today I got to shoot and write a pretty bittersweet assignment. (If you'd like to see my other photos, I read the short writeup I did, you can find it on MLive here). It was a last minute one, and all I was told was that a group of ladies from the Red Hat Society were visiting a friend of theirs in the hospital. When I drove to the hospital and actually met the woman, Linda, who was getting the visit, I found out that she was in the hospital from being in a serious car accident a few weeks ago that killed her husband. 

     When her friends walked in and each one of them walked up to her, hugged her, and told her how much they loved her and were there for her, it was truly touching. It was easy to see how much she'd missed them, (she was in I.C.U. until last week so her only visitor has been her daughter), and how much them being there helped her. It made me think of when I came back home after finding out my dad had passed away, and how much having my family and friends there as soon as I walked in the door really and truly helped me get through everything. 

It's really amazing how much human beings can do for each other just by simply being there.

Day 268/365

     Yesterday/day 268 was a bit of an emotional one. My dad would've been sixty years old yesterday, and for work I covered two memorial services. In a way it was all entirely fitting. The first service I covered was what would have been a local boy's ninth birthday. The boy, Jayden Lamb, passed away last month after more than a two year battle with cancer. In honor of his birthday, hundreds of people met at a Midland church to light and send off hundreds of lanterns into the sky. It was really cool to see. There's also been a pay it forward movement gaining steam in the wake of his passing, and if you like you can read about it in one of the articles on MLive here.

     The second service I covered last night was the eleventh annual Project Blue Light ceremony, which is for law enforcement officers and their families to pay tribute to deceased officers. It was amazing to see so many officers from different areas, (some as far as Canada), and their families come together to support each other. I was doing fine with everything yesterday, until at the end of the ceremony they had bagpipers play "Amazing Grace" to lead out the processional. Gets me every freakin' time!

  

 

Day 253/365

     Yesterday was a day of extremes. In the morning, I went with a Bay City crime reporter to interview a likely serial killer from a string of cold cases from thirty years ago that the police could never get enough hard evidence to charge the man with anything. The man was extremely unsettling, as one would expect, but the experience was absolutely amazing. It reminded me of why I love what I do for a living. Unfortunately for me, the man didn't want his picture taken, so I only came away with a picture of an old photograph of his deceased mother, (her murder is also a cold case). To read about the ongoing cold case series, you can find it on MLive here.

     After dealing with the cold case series in the morning, I had a restaurant feature to shoot out in Frankenmuth. That was all fine and dandy, until I was leaving the restaurant to go process my images when the driver of a minivan decided to not check her blind spot and clipped my car. My car, luckily, is still drivable, and I'm taking it in tomorrow for an estimate on repairs. Here's hoping things go much more smoothly this time around than they did in August. Oy....

Blogger's Note

     "A man tells so many stories, that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal."

     Four years ago today, your stories became immortal. Backing your car into a dumpster when you were teaching me how to drive became immortal. Trying to fix the ceiling fan in my room only to short out the entire house's electricity became immortal. Inventing swear words by combining three and four of them together the year our Christmas tree kept falling over became immortal. You made everything so much better; even your mistakes made for good stories. You were the best dad I could ever hope to have, and one of the best friends I will ever know. I don't believe in any god or deity, I don't believe in heaven or hell, I don't pray, I don't believe everything happens for a reason. I believe in you. Four years  ago you became immortal, and that's how you'll stay.

Day 205/365

     Today's post is a two-for-one from the Ken Bluew trial. The Saginaw County Medical Examiner testified today, stating that Jennifer Webb died from being in a choke hold, and not from hanging herself with an extension cord from the roof rack of her car. The Saginaw County Prosecutor asked him to demonstrate what he meant by a choke hold, and thus the gem that is today's top photo was born. The bottom one is Bluew watching the medical examiner walk down off of the stand and out of the courtroom, (or, at least, that's what it looked like to me). Since where I'm allowed to sit in the courtroom is behind Bluew and to his left, most of my shots of him are him in profile like this photo, but I still liked this one even if it's been overdone a bit by now. If you'd like to see more photos or articles from today's coverage, you can find them on MLive here.

Day 204/365

     This afternoon had me covering the Ken Bluew trial again, (the, currently suspended, police officer accused of strangling the woman who was pregnant with his child, then hanging her from the roof rack of her car with an extension cord to make it look like a suicide). The whole afternoon I was there was filled with the playing of a video of two Michigan State Police officers interviewing Bluew the morning after the woman, Jennifer Webb, was found. For the first two hours of the footage, Bluew said there was no way he could be the father of Webb's unborn child because they had never had sex. It wasn't until almost the very end of the tape that Bluew finally said that they had slept together, so there was a possibility of him being the father. Full coverage from today's proceedings, as well as the rest of the trial, can be found on MLive here.

Day 191/365

     Today was an interesting day, to say the least. I took pictures of a thrift store in Saginaw this morning, one that sells everything from clothes and jewelry to food and fishing bait. The quirkiest thing they sell, in my opinion, is neon green nightcrawlers, so of course I had to post a photo. After the thrift store I covered the afternoon proceedings of the second day of Ken Bluew's murder trial. I had a bit of a mini stare down with Bluew when his trial went on break. The judge, jury, and some of the observers had left to the courtroom for the short recess, and Bluew had turned around to face friends and family of his that had come to support him. As he was talking to them, I took some photos since it was my only chance to get his full face today, as he wouldn't be taking the stand today and would have his back to me the entire time. He did not look too pleased with the fact that I was taking his picture, and every time I pointed the camera at hime he made sure to look away, so unfortunately I don't have any photos of the major league glare he seemed to be directing my way. Either way, today you get a double feature of worms and Ken Bluew! By clicking on the photos you can view them larger, and to see more pictures from Bluew's trial and links to articles on the proceedings you can go on MLive here. 

Day 190/365

     Today I covered the beginning of a murder trial in Saginaw. A, (currently suspended), police officer is accused of strangling his girlfriend who was eight months pregnant with his son at the time of her death. Kenneth Bluew, pictured above on the right, took longer than usual to respond to a routine roll call over police radio during a night shift. His friend and fellow officer went to look for him, and ended up stumbling upon what appeared to be an abandoned vehicle. After the officer got out of his car, Bluew suddenly appeared with his patrol car parked in the distance. Bluew proceeded to ask his fellow officer how he wanted to process the car, as if there had been a call on it, which there hadn't been. When they both checked out the car, they found pregnant Jennifer Webb hanging from the roof rack with an extension cord around her neck; an apparent suicide. 

     Bluew never acknowledged that he knew the deceased, not until later when another officer found her license. Shortly after that the officer also found Webb's phone, with recent calls between Bluew and herself. After another officer spoke to Webb's family and found out that she had not appeared to be suicidal, but ecstatic towards the prospect of soon being a mother, and that Bluew was in fact the father of the unborn child, Bluew was then considered a major suspect. Fast forward to today, and Bluew is now charged with first-degree premeditated murder, (a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole if found guilty), and is also charged with assaulting a pregnant individual intentionally causing miscarriage or stillbirth of a fetus or embryo, as well as two counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.

If you'd like, you can see more photos from today as well as find links to current articles surrounding the case on MLive here.

Day 164/365

     There was yet another shooting last night; a house about one street over from the shooting I covered yesterday afternoon was shot up, killing a six year-old girl and leaving her father critically injured. Apparently they were just in town visiting family, and there's no word yet on whether or not the father was a target. Because of the escalating violence, the former mayor of Saginaw held a press conference this morning asking those who may have information relating to the murders but have kept quiet to come forward, whether it be to the police or to watchdog groups like the ones present this morning. While the former mayor, Gary Loster, talked about yesterday's victims, he mainly talked about Milton Hall, a homeless man that was shot 30-40 times by Saginaw police during a standoff back in July. The Milton Hall fiasco has caused a lot of anger in the area, mostly directed towards police, since most citizens are calling it an act of extreme police brutality. There's an ongoing investigation into the police department's actions, but not much has been said, leading people to try to take measures into their own hands, drawing national attention from CNN and garnering upcoming visits from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. 

Day 163/365

     Today's post is from a shooting I covered in Saginaw. It's still under investigation, so I don't know the full story. What I understood from the entire neighborhood of people watching the police tape the area off was that a young man was in the neighborhood to help his grandmother with some yard work and was shot while he was on his bike near her house. He ran into his grandmother's house where he died before he could be taken to a hospital. I was standing with people who knew the victim pretty well, and who took his death and how it came about pretty hard, (understandably so). One woman, (I'm not sure how she knew the man), was so distraught that at one point she passed out from crying so hard. I'm at the point where I think I'd take just about any other sound right now to replace hearing her in my head. 

Day 151/365

     Today was an initiation of sorts in my burgeoning photojournalism career; I saw my first dead body while on the job. I covered a car accident in a small rural town outside of Bay City where the truck pictured in today's post ran a stop sign, colliding with a Ford Escape before going airborne and rolling over into someone's front yard. The only people involved were the two drivers, and both of them were killed in the crash. Just as the reporter covering the accident and I got out there, they were using the jaws of life to take the deceased male driver out of the truck while paramedics took the deceased female driver out of the Escape. There's only a few photos up on MLive here so far; the authorities haven't been able to get ahold of the deceased woman's next of kin yet, so I can't post the photos of her car until her husband's been notified. This afternoon's turned into a depressingly surreal waiting game.