I don't know if you heard it yesterday, but things got a little emotional on The KFBK Afternoon News.
As part of our coverage of the murder of Officer Tara O'Sullivan and the standoff that ensued, endangering the lives of dozens of neighbors as the suspect allegedly fired a high-powered rifle out of his window hundreds of times, we had audio that had been posted to Twitter by Comstock's Magazine's Digital Editor, Matthew Keys. In it, a police officer, expanding the restricted area of the neighborhood to keep innocent bystanders out of harms' way, is taunted by some of those people.
VIDEO: Sacramento Police (@SacPolice) taunted by gawkers near the scene of a shooting that injured one of their fellow officers on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/Ea4VERvdV6
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) June 20, 2019
I hadn't heard the audio before air, and when we got to "We got guns, too".....well, I strained to keep my composure. As I said to Kitty, knowing we were live, "I've never sworn on the air---but I'm close."
We revisited the topic near the end of the afternoon, in our handoff to The Pat Walsh Show, and I think it's fair to say that Pat was even more steamed than I was.
Look, I know---in fact, I said in my post yesterday---that our relationship, as a society and as a metropolitan area, with law enforcement is complicated. More so for some groups of people than others. In this case, with bullets flying and a fellow officer lying mortally wounded a few blocks away, that officer deserves a commendation for keeping his composure in the face of that nonsense. Those women got to go home that night. I wonder if they know the officer they were verbally abusing and, one could argue, threatening ("we got guns, too") had a lot to do with that safe return. He kept them from being caught in the crossfire.
Today is a new day. A margarita with my wife last night was very helpful. Ahead of us lies healing and hope. Plus The KFBK Afternoon News. Kitty's off today, but has left us with a great Friday Food segment from the folks at Sam's Hof Brau and a movie review from Lana Wilson-Combs and the lovely and delightful Bethany Crouch (you remember her from FOX40 and Good Day Sacramento) will be filling in for Kitty. I hope you join us between 4 and 7.