A waiting game

Posted by Kris Holland on Jan 23, 2009 | 4 comments

One might assume that photographing a stand-of between police SWAT teams and those fleeing arrest would be one of the most exciting things a photojournalist could shoot. Uh, well, not so much. While these can be adrenaline-fueled situations my experience thus far has been the opposite.

In a Jan. 21 stand-off between the Yakima police SWAT team and two suspects related to a Jan. 20 fatal shooting of a Toppenish man, police surrounded several homes on South Seventh Street in Yakima and waited, and waited… and waited some more. For more than four hours SWAT teams called for the suspects to give themselves up while setting off flash-bang grenades to disorient and coerce the men to surrender. While this was going on, photographers and reporters were “patiently” waiting blocks away at the request of the police department. While our safety was their concern, our designated plot of pavement so far away from the action was not helping me get the photos I needed.

After seeing two SWAT team members run into a nearby alleyway, I decided to follow them by running parallel to the officers on a South Six Street sidewalk. Shooting through the backyard of an abandoned home with a 400mm lens I captured the arrest of one suspect and a few minutes later was back to “patiently” waiting in my designated spot. Yawn, stretch. “Got any coffee,” one of the broadcast journalists asked the group. We laughed collectively and went back to “patiently” waiting.

While there are a few exciting moments in stand-off situations, they are few and far between. As I fought off shivers in subfreezing temperatures I tried to stay alert, all the while “patiently” waiting.

–Kris Holland