Less than 25 minutes after an SUV plowed into more than two dozen sheriff’s recruits on a jog through Whittier, a city in Los Angeles County, images of the horrific scene were beamed from the KCBS chopper to the station’s airwaves. Details of the unfortunate event were scant but trickling in, with viewers learning what happened about as quickly as the KCBS newsroom was.
Delivering the breaking news was not an anchor or a reporter in the field with a camera crew on that November morning. It was a KCBS assignment desk editor named Mark Liu.
“This is a very chaotic scene,” Liu informed viewers. “I have been listening to this on the radio and my colleagues Esteban and Annette on the assignment desk have been calling Los Angeles sheriffs to get more information as this is unfolding.”
He was able to report that the car that struck the recruits and its driver remained on the scene, so it was not a case of hit-and-run. Liu also said first responders were shutting down lanes of nearby highways to transport the injured to local hospitals.
He tried to figure out what headquarters the cadets were based out of, checking digital maps, which were displayed on the air, and he later surmised that the SUV came to a stop only after crashing into a light pole.
For around 10 total minutes Liu shared the rest of the information he had about the