Burroughs and 41st streetsSAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) -
One of the rules I've hung onto from my years as a print journalist: Never write straight news in first person.
… unless, of course, you end up part of the story.
This is such an occasion.
I was driving down Interstate 16 about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on my way back from covering the Savannah-Chatham School Board meeting when three police cars whizzed past me in the left lane – following closely – one behind the other.
They were going faster than I know police to drive during rush hour. And the really strange part: the first car didn't have on its lights or sirens.
I slowed down to pull over, and when I rounded the curve for Exit 162 (Chatham Parkway and our WTOC station), I saw a wrecked Savannah-Chatham patrol car in woods surrounding a retention pond. I pulled onto the shoulder behind the last car. Then things started happening really fast.
In seconds, I was surrounded by several cars – officers yelling "get down!" "get down!" I crouched behind my bumper and started filming. Beside my car, an officer was ducking for cover and pulling on a bullet-proof vest. I watched as several more pulled out rifles and ran past me.
I knew several officers at the scene, but none of them could or would tell me anything about the incident.
As of early Thursday morning, police aren't saying anything about what happened. I-16 westbound has been shut down for hours. WTOC has heard unconfirmed reports that a female police officer was shot, along with a suspect, and that an officer's car was stolen. This station has footage - taken by our videojournalist Channing Beacham, who was on the western end of the scene - of a female officer being loaded into an ambulance. She appears conscious and alert in the video.
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