I didn't mind that Jerome Vine spit at me twice Monday because I'd just beaten the odds and shot an important breaking news photo.

The saga started the preceding Wednesday, at 2 a.m. when I got a call about an possible double homicide a half mile from my home. A 40 year old woman was killed, and her 22 year old daughter was critically wounded in the stabbing incident. The mother had collapsed and died on the neighbor's porch, looking for help from people who were away on vacation, and her daughter had collapsed running, screaming through the neighborhood.

[Read Mark's notes from 4:00 am]

Police released an old booking photo of Vine after identifying him as the suspect. Friday night they chased him through drainage tunnels near the stabbing scene, after he robbed a convenient mart. Saturday night our neighborhood was ringed with police looking for him in the nearby woods and tunnels. The area was gripped was fear and uncertainty.

I considered asking police to call me in the middle of the night if they cornered him, never dreaming the capture would take place in broad daylight. Monday afternoon, though, I was in the right place at the right time in the newsroom to catch just a few words on our police radio that indicated Vine had been spotted...in the park across the street from my house

Anna Brunson died on the porch of this home around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday July 14, 1999, after being stabbed at her home next door. Her daughter, Delores Brunson, was also stabbed in the attack and was critically injured. Photo by Mark Hertzberg © 1999 Racine Journal Times

 

The park is three blocks long. It was impossible to know where to go, so I parked near the middle of that stretch hoping that the police would be too busy to worry that I was violating the "No Parking 3:30-6 p.m." ordinance. There were police cars up and down the street, and officers were stationed every 50 feet, their hands on their weapons. A police dog was searching the area below the bluff, by the Root River. There wasn't much to photograph after the first few minutes. Then an ambulance was dispatched to the West Sixth St. bridge as a precaution, at police request. I stayed by the bridge.


A Racine police officer sprints across the alley in pursuit of Jerome V. Vine, just before Vine was captured in the adjoining yard. Photo by Mark Hertzberg © 1999 Racine Journal Times 		Suddenly there was incredible shouting and officers jumped into the cars and squealed their tires pulling away. Me? Well, I ran for my car as fast as my worn knees would carry me, suddenly unable to find my &%^#@ car keys. I thrust my cameras at our reporter, finally found the damn keys, and we joined the pursuit. Police had run through our neighbor's yard as Vine tried to elude them, and I was able to get to the scene of the capture, in the alley a block from ours.
Vine spit at me twice as I photographed police taking him away. The crowd of gawkers cheered the police when the door was shut on Vine in the prison transport van. It turns out that Vine had been hiding in a space under the bridge two blocks from our house...which means that when I went on my daily early morning bike ride, I was riding right over his hiding place.
Murder suspect Jerome V. Vine is searched by Racine, Wis. police officers after he was captured two blocks from my house after a foot chase Monday July 19, 1999. Vine is suspected of committing a double stabbing which left one person dead, and another critically injured, last week. He is also accused of holding up a mini-mart. He was thought to be living in nearby woods or drainage ditches, but it turned out he was living in the conrete arch under a bridge. Photo by Mark Hertzberg © 1999 Racine Journal Times
Bystanders cheer and applaud police after they took Jerome A. Vine away after a foot chase. Photo by Mark Hertzberg © 1999 Racine Journal Times
Jerome Vine hid in a bunker under this bridge two blocks from my home. Photo by Liana J. Cooper © 1999 Racine Journal Times
Mark Hertzberg
< hertz@wi.net >
Director of Photography
Journal Times
Racine, Wisconsin
Other journals by Mark Hertzberg
363 May 2000 Three short topics
361 April 27, 2000 It's a moment frozen forever
359 April 18, 2000 I'm glad I wasn't working
346 February 18, 2000 Fatal Fire
343 January 28, 2000 Suicide By Cop
340 December 28, 1999 Four Minute Justice
338 December 11, 1999 In 1/125th of a second
336 December 4, 1999 Day in Court
332 Is Photojournalism Dead?Mark Hertzberg On the flip side, though, many newspapers that have made a 180-degree change have changed for the better rather than for the worse
325 October 10, 1999 Oh, the people you meet
324 September 29, 1999 It was an innocent question from a high school clerk
309 July 23, 1999 I didn't mind Jerome Vine spit at me twice
307 July 21, 1999 "What have you done? What have you dragged us into?"
303 July 17, 1999 If your mother says she loves you, check it out
292 June 23, 1999 You Never Know
283 May 17, 1999 Epilogue to May 4, 1999
276 May 4, 1999 David Raymond Segura, Sr. walked out of the Racine County Jail to the cheers and hugs of his family
272 April 25, 1999 Littleton. Burlington.
265 April 18, 1999 "I can't believe I'm being paid to have fun. "
261 April 15, 1999 It was the first time...
257 March 26, 1999 The Supreme Court isn't sure I should have been able to shoot one of the most dramatic pictures I've ever taken.
248 March 13, 1999 I got nauseous on the job today...
247 March 12, 1999 The prosecution's case
246 March 12, 1999

Sidebar: One of the most difficult issues for us to consider
239 March 1, 1999 That's your guy.
222 February 11, 1999 It's a lie to say that pictures never lie, as our readers and viewers know all too well.
215 February 4, 1999 Remember report cards?
213 February 1, 1999 I saw something horrifying and shocking this week
198 January 8, 1999 Damn, it's hard to cover news stories when you know the people involved in them, and when you have to put aside personal feelings to get the story.
192 December, 1998 This journal is a tribute to you, the reader
180 November 29, 1998 Abortion. That's the only word you have to mention in any conversation, and emotions are aroused , so imagine what it's like trying to make newsroom decisions about how to cover the issue. That's where we found ourselves Thursday morning at the Racine Journal Times.
178 November 22, 1998 We Interrupt This Broadcast
176 November 18, 1998 Our big story last week, indeed perhaps our biggest of the year, was a story about something that DIDN'T happen.
175 November 16, 1998 Did We Overact?
174 November 8, 1998 Wednesday was the day the yellow smiley face from that big chain of stores from Arkansas frowned at me.
171 November 3, 1998 Monday Morning, Post Gore
170 November 2, 1998 I'm so excited, I won't be able to sleep tonight
158 October 12, 1998 It was one of those days when an assignment was as much fun as opening birthday presents.
157 October 10, 1998 He's a cop...
150 September 21, 1998 A friend of mine calls it the ultimate form of channel surfing. .
146 September 11, 1998 ...sometimes we can have a positive effect on people's lives even when some readers think we are raking them over the coals. .
138 August 28, 1998 Sometimes the last thing a photographer wants to see is a camera.
120 July 25, 1998 They say that in England you are innocent until proven guilty; in France you are guilty until proven innocent; and in America you are innocent until the next edition of the newspaper flies off the presses or the evening news comes on.
111 July 12, 1998 We joke that today's newspaper is tomorrow's fish wrap. But for many people, our work lives on beyond just that day's paper.
109 July 7, 1998 Delgado, who sat in his orange county jail jumpsuit, had tears streaming down his face as he listened to the charges being read the day after his nine-month old son died on a hot summer day, strapped in his car seat, in the backseat of Delgado's broiling Dodge Omni
101 June 23, 1998 We've never shown the readers this sunset view of the city before...if all goes well, it'll stretch across Wednesday morning's front page. Today is Monday, though, and they first have to get through Tuesday's newspaper.
100 June 22, 1998 Last week I had the tables turned on me
87 June 4, 1998 ..none of those pictures would have been published without his help.
82 May 29, 1998 Today was one of those days in which you hit the lows and the highs.
78 May 26, 1998 You never know where a pair of dirty socks will take you
73 May 17, 1998 I no longer have to hide under semi-trailer trucks to shoot news pictures of major industries..
67 April 24, 1998 Stop the Presses
63 April 19, 1998 Sign of Discontent
43 March 24, 1998 Humphrey Bogart, move over.
42 March 23, 1998 In the end, only one photo was important...
32 February 27, 1998 My work has now been published in a new media...on a picket sign
28 February 24, 1998

Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 3

February 23, 1998 Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 2

 
22 February 20, 1998 Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 1
13 February 4, 1998 (9:24 AM) It was a situation where one has to shoot pictures first, and ask questions later Update: To Mark's February 4 posting
7 January 27, 1998 The viewfinder in our cameras is dark for the split second we shoot our photos...
5 January 23, 1998 Just what is news?
3 January 19, 1998 An 83-year-old reader called me this morning, in tears. .
 
Contributor since 1998
  
   


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