Funny thing about police standoffs. You just never know how long a standoff is going to last. It could be only a matter of minutes before the bad guys give up. Or, it could be hours. Or days.
So, you wait. And wait. And wait. For something to happen, something to photograph. Police moving into position. Police moving assault vehicles into position. Neighbors. Curious passers-by. Images which tell a story of the standoffs.
To me, police standoffs are a little bit like a baseball game. Long stretches of nothing interspersed with brief flurries of activity. But like covering a baseball game, you’ve got to stay focused (pun intended) on the situation so you don’t miss anything.
We had a standoff in Yakima the other day between Yakima police and an alleged gang member wanted on a weapons charge.
Police moving in with a telephone:
Members of the Yakima Police Department SWAT team carry a telephone to a home on North Sixth Street during a standoff with a suspect there Oct. 12, 2010. The suspect, wanted in connection with a weapons offense, was arrested later in the afternoon.
And the YPD armored vehicle, also known as “the V” (shorthand for the vehicle type), moving in.
The Yakima Police Department SWAT team's armored vehicle moves into position during a standoff with a suspect at a home on North Sixth Street Oct. 12, 2010. The suspect was later arrested without incident.
It was a warm, sunny, fall afternoon. A couple of TV folks were there along with a very friendly YPD officer. It was all too easy to chat with them and not pay attention.
The standoff ended in an instant, with no warning, when the alleged gang member and his girlfriend emerged from the house after just a couple of hours. Luckily I got a number of frames off (thank you Mark IV!) in those few brief moments.
We caught another break when a YPD officer escorted the suspect to waiting police car, giving us an unobstructed view of the young man.
The photo we ran:
Yakima Police Department Officer Ryan Wisner takes an alleged gang member into custody following a standoff at a home on North Sixth Street in Yakima Oct. 12, 2010. The gang member is being investigated on a weapons charge.
It’s generally our newspaper’s policy to not identify, either in words or visually, a suspect until he or she is formally charged with a crime. I have plenty of photos which shows the suspect’s face but, because of our policy, did not run one of those photos.
–Gordon King
Picture This | seattletimes.com blog
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