Shooting near Capitol in D.C. reported on Twitter first | Breaking Tweets

Shooting near Capitol in D.C. reported on Twitter first

Posted by Craig Kanalley on 7/15/09 • Categorized as Crime, North America

Per NBC News Channel 8 in D.C., police shot a 35-year-old man at New Jersey Avenue NW and C Street NW near the Capitol this evening in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Mozzone (@kmdmozzone), a University of Georgia broadcast news graduate and NBC News receptionist who lives in D.C. per her bio, provided the first tweet on the news — nearly 16 minutes before @BreakingNews first reported the incident and several minutes before CNN and others.

She later told Breaking Tweets that she “witnessed the end of the chase” and that she tweeted just after alerting NBC Newschannel.

  1. Katherine Mozzone
    kmdmozzone High speed chase just ended at Louisiana and C St. NW. SHOTS FIRED. Police still responding. #DC #policechase 15 Jul 2009 from txt
  2. Katherine Mozzone
    kmdmozzone Several entrances to the capitol now closed. Many emergency vehicles on the scene (WTOP). #DC #policechase 15 Jul 2009 from txt

A series of D.C. Twitterers added context and first thoughts upon hearing of the shooting.

  1. Mimi Ukwuani
    welcome2miami04 ohp “slight bus detour due to police activity around the capitol” 15 Jul 2009 from mobile web
  2. Michael Schwartzberg
    FirePix1075 @Squirrel325 i heard shooting on NJ and C sts. Capitol PD on scene. 15 Jul 2009 from mobile web
  3. Jim Long
    newmediajim Police tape across NJ ave. Not sure what’s happening but LOTS of police activity 15 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
  4. FamousDC
    FamousDC RT @WendyELong: I just heard sirens and a report there were shots fired on Capitol hill? All seems normal in the hearing room #hillshooting 15 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
  5. Bret Manley
    bretmanley Why haven’t Capitol Police sent out an alert to staff WTF!!! #hillshooting 15 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
  6. Jeff Quinton
    jeffq73 RT @mkhammer: “A U.S. Cap Police officer shot a person at NJ Avenue NW and C Street NW, blocks from Capitol.” police sources #hillshooting 15 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
  7. Shawn Yancy
    syancyfox5 Capitol Hill Shooting: witnesses say so many shots fired.. they hit the ground. Police reportedly chasing white mercedes that crashed#fox5 15 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
  8. Dabloguiman
    dabloguiman Shooting near Capitol: looks like it happened at end of police car chase. 15 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
  9. Minal Caron
    minalc Gun shot on Capitol Hill, literally right outside the door I enter into! No one I know saw or heard it thankfully. 15 Jul 2009 from UberTwitter
Share
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [StumbleUpon] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Related tweets in real-time:

[Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post 

Tagged as: ,
  • jukhau
    Could someone confirm what time shooting was posted to Twitter and BreakingTweets?

    I'm interested because our national news media claims to publish it 0:57 AM local time (5:57 PM DC time), but for me it is bit hard to believe it, since news on finnish mainstream media could be seen on web approximate one hour later than what claimed publishing time was. According to ABC 7 News incident happened 5:15 p.m. and police all-clear sounded 5:35 p.m.

    You can translate my blog post to english, it is based on story here. I recommend BT to add exact time stamp for blog posts.
  • ckanal
    Jukhau, Thanks for the comment.

    BT story I believe was posted around 5:50 p.m. DC time. That first tweet was about 5:22 p.m. if I have my numbers right, @BreakingNews posted at 5:36 p.m.? These are my best estimates based on what I remember. Something like that.

    Adding timestamp to BT posts is a good idea. I'll look into it. Until then, you can find us on Google News to see how many hours ago it was posted.
  • jukhau
    Ok. Thanks for this info. Adding timestamp is probably good idea, specially if your idea is to compete with traditional news sources.
  • ckanal
    Had my numbers wrong. @BreakingNews was definitely 16 minutes after her tweet, not 14, but you get the idea -- they're around there.

    Also, I'm not sure our idea is to "compete" with traditional news - just offer something different and a closer look at these types of stories from the perspective of Twitterers near the scene of the news.
blog comments powered by Disqus