I accidentally showed up at a homicide scene with a camera.

Here's what happened.

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In the 1990s, I was a TV news stinger, a freelance news cameraman in San Francisco.

I would listen to the police scanners mounted in my car and rush to the scene of breaking

news stories where I would get my video camera out, record news footage and sell it to the

local TV stations.

One night I heard the police get called to a homicide scene.

I scooted over there and parked and got my camera out of my trunk just as a couple of

homicide detectives pulled up.

I should explain that my camera was a mid-sized industrial model.

Not one of those huge multi-thousand dollar broadcast models that only the TV stations

could afford.

The detectives spotted me holding my gear and motioned me over to the house where the

murder had taken place and held the door open for me to enter.

I'm flabbergasted.

This has never happened to me before.

Obviously when the cops see me show up, they start throwing up police line tape to keep

me and my cameras far back as they can.

This is a very unexpected welcome.

But hey, I'll take it.

I walk in and shoot a couple wide establishing shots along with getting a couple of medium

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