How I ... got the story
Police reporter nabs rich detail for a better story

Xiao Zhang       Grand Forks Herald

How do you make a routine police story stand out? Xiao Zhang, police reporter for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, talks about a routine arrest story that turned into a news feature about a catfish-loving officer who happened up a convenience-story robbery because of hunger pangs. He made the arrest, but not before the suspect dropped his knife coming out of the bathroom and the officer took cover behind a pile of soda boxes. These details didn't come from a press release. They came as a result of Zhang's curiosity and doggedness.

How did you get the fascinating information in this story?

Here's what happened: The police chief called, saying he had faxed me a press release. It was a standard release -- officer saw suspect ... suspect dropped knife and ran back to bathroom ... came out empty-handed ... was arrested.

I called the chief to ask for more information. He hadn't been at the scene, so he could answer only a few questions. Then I asked to speak with the officers involved. (I have pretty good relationship with this police department, so the chief lets me talk to the officers.)

But the officers work night shifts and weren't at work.

So I got out the phone book and called the one officer whose home number was listed in the directory. I wanted to know if the officer who had gone into the store had called for backup and just why he had decided to take a snack break then and there. Does he always go to the same convenience store? Or was this just a fluke? The sergeant told me that he had heard on the police radio that the officer hadn't had dinner before coming to work.

The officer agreed to call the arresting officer, who is not listed in the phonebook, and have him call me. He did.

I started asking him everything I would think of: Why didn't he have dinner before starting work at 10 p.m.? Did he run into criminal suspects like this all the time? What did he think when the suspect went back into the bathroom?

He was an interesting person to talk to. We chatted, and he even told me about his fishing Web site. I just let him talk about some of his fishing passions and snuck in questions about the arrest from time to time.

I tried to reach the convenience-store clerk, too, but was told only members of the company's "board of directors" could talk to the media.

In retrospect, it's kind of a funny story. I probably could do better than the criminal suspect. Dropping his knife? That's pretty bad.

Xiao Zhang was a Fall 2001 Scholar at The Times in Shreveport, La. Reach her at xzhang@gfherald.com.

About the column

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