Three pics of the accused, note the injured leg.

It started for me at 6.45am that morning, "A cop has been shot and there are about 200 cops in Town!" were the words that awoke my wife and I. My brother-in-law, an habitue of donut shops had emerged from Timmy's with two jolts that morning, one reality and the other caffeine. Slowly coming around after a late night bedtime we heard the whop-whop of a helicopter and realised that something big had gone down in the night. "Maybe that's why the dog started to bark last night" my wife muttered: a rare occurrence for our dog.

At the gas station where I work part-time the cashiers told me that they had heard from the taxi-drivers working the midnight shift that "Chris Garrett was killed last night investigating a B&E at the old hospital site". As I approached the location of the old hospital I noticed Police Tape (the "Do not cross" yellow stuff) was festooned around trees and 'no-entry' barriers had been erected by the Town's public works department. The cordoned area appeared to be about six city blocks. Arriving at the closest barrier to the old hospital the first person to be seen was the local paper's weekend cameraman, Pete Fisher. This guy the quintessential ambulance chaser was wearing his usual gear, cameras slung low and the lens belt ready. "You'll have to get a little nearer, Pete, even with that lens." I said as I approached him. Apparently I had spoken too loudly and he admonished me as though I had giggled during the Archbishop's sermon. "Be quiet a Police Officer has been killed here" giving the area the the aura of consecrated ground. Looking around I noticed cruisers from four Departments: Cobourg, Port Hope Durham Regional and the OPP. The largest group was the OPP and that was supported by the OPP chopper parked in the Columbus Community Hall three blocks away. The Community Liaison Officer, Cindy Reeves was at this barrier, "There will be a press conference at 11am". "Sad thing CIndy" said I. "It's not right, at least not here in Cobourg!" she replied and went back to the security of other Officers. It was obvious that she had been crying.

At the police station more grim people. "Around the corner, in the Cadets Hall" Bob Jenkins commanded. Entering the hall the first sight was two TV cams on tripods in the middle of the room and a Police Officer making sure that the podium would be focused correctly by holding a card up un front of the cameras. Shifting around the local contingent of reporters came into view, the daily paper's photographers. and their editor, the biweekly people and a couple of out of towners.

11am. The Officer who had been holding the focusing card announced who he was - a media liaison person from nearby Durham Regional. Introducing the orders of the day he explained the command structure and then turned the event over to the Cobourg Chief. Garry Clement looking as professional a Chief could be when telling the community he has just lost a fine officer proceeded to tell all just how high a regard everybody had for the slain Officer. Giving the barest of facts, a suspect had been arrested and "yes he was from Cobourg". Anything else was responded to with a "no comment".

Up next was Stan Sokay, the President of the Police Association, visibly shaken and fighting to control himself he just stated just how much Chris would be missed and this was a tragedy. The Chief then came back up to give tribute to the Officer and explain to the out of town press that "It has caught us off guard and the community feels it" and when asked if Officer Garrett had come to Cobourg to get away from crime ridden Peel, by one of the out of towners, he replied "nobody comes to Cobourg to get away from crime!" Announcing that the event has been turned over to the OPP he then informed us all that we would kept in the loop.

Mayor Peter Delanty then stepped up to say that he had heard it from the Chief and was here to support them all. "I am shaken by the news and expressed sympathy to both the Officer's family and the Police Department. An ashen faced Inspector Paul Sweet told the assembly of the procedures to be taken next.

As the press conference broke up the 'newsies' then dove into various people for interviews. We will be reading about the results of those exchanges for the next few days.

Now the rumours start for few official details were given: was the Officer shot or stabbed, did the Officer fire his gun or was he shot at, had the Officer been shot and had his throat slit, did the suspect turn himself in or was he nabbed at the Hospital? All these and more floated around the area. In fact I got into the game and conducted a couple of street interviews just to test what thought they knew. The first person said, "I just heard he was stabbed and that's all". The second person a local coffee bar owner said he was definitely shot, "I had a customer in here this morning who had heard the shots." So we in the town wait for the first press reports and speculate.

6pm, the evening news. Global and CTV lead with the story, Global says the Officer was shot and CTV said that he was stabbed, I'm going with the CTV as Pete Fisher strings for them. That night I check out the barriers and meet a couple of neighbours who repeat the rumours I have heard. But they did say that a couple of Officers, who could have been taken for Jehovah's Witnesses because of their black suits had been canvassing the neighbourhood asking if anybody had seen anything and "by the way, how are you feeling about this?" A trauma team perhaps but the neighbours were perplexed by that question. My daughter who lives in the cordoned off neighbourhood reports that her backyard had been invaded by a SWAT team obviously looking for something. One of the tow truck drivers at the garage, where I worked was sent to retrieve an OPP wagon, carrying a firearms sniffer dog. It had broken down on the 401 and had to be brought into Cobourg to join the search. Speculation is now rampant that the Officer's gun or the assailant's knife is still missing.

8am Sunday morning, the barriers are still up but the newspapers are out. Both the Star and the Sun lead with the story. The Sun is full of the inside scoop from Pete Fisher and the Star story is written by a couple of staff reporters. The two reports are completely different. The Star is a complete narrative and covers all the bases: the Officer's family, the community's shock the details as we knew them yesterday and the suspect in custody. The Sun/Pete Fisher story had the inside details because 'ole pete' was inside the barrier before they went up and his sources are pretty reliable. I guess you can't be the invited police reporter/camera without some perks. So now we know that the suspect was being interviewed by the Officer when he was set upon. He was by himself, for as another source quoted, "the guy to be interviewed looked pretty harmless" and when the shots went off the others came back and found him bleeding to death.

Sunday afternoon. More rumours: we now hear that the police have a second person and a name is being circulated. The story firms up, the 911 was a call from a person, or his colleagues, who was being held at knife point as a result of a drug deal. Speculation still abounds about the Officer's gun and if he had been shot with it.

6pm The evening news, shots of personal tributes and flowers being delivered to the death site and the Police Station. More details; 18yr old Troy Davey of Cobourg will be charged with murder and appear in court tomorrow morning. Some time this evening the police will seal off two blocks of Chapel St and search Davey's house and find bomb making equipment and an unexploded device. Once the bomb was disarmed the public were allowed back into their homes.

Monday morning, 8.15pm. The press was starting to gather at the Town Hall expecting to see the arrested person come in for a first hearing. ("It [the van] usually arrives from Lindsay anywhere from 8.30 to 9 am", Terry Stanley told me early on) - it was a long wait. Global was there first and setup opposite the walkway. Others just >

The global crew

A collection of media

milled around and waited for the van.

It didn't come until 1045. So a lot of pics were taken. The media types I recognised and IDd were: CTV, one early crew and their star 'suit', Austin Delaney, he turned up one hour after the grunts. Global had a truck and two mobiles. Their 'suit', Nick Dixon was there from the start. At 9am the CITYtv guy turns up (Pic on right). By the time the Police van arrived TV crews from CKWS in Kingston, CHEX in Peterborough had arrived and the CBC/RDI people came in late.

Paper "heavies - The Star and the Sun"

The people in the photo on the left are the heavies of the print world: two Toronto Star people and Sarah Green and Mark Bonokowski of the Toronto Sun. Incidentally there wasn't a Toronto Sun to be found in Town after 1030am yesterday.

So what did we do whilst we were waiting for the accused - not much except speculate which side of the building the van would turn up at. A few of us bet on the West side because five Cobourg cops were guarding an empty street and preventing people from occupying the empty parking spaces. The crowd of people also expected

five Cobourg cops

the same and we all caught off guard when the van appeared on the East side. Everyone rushed to see.

More waiting ensued and the accused was taken out of court some fifteen minutes later.

Wandering around, killing time I came upon a local group of cameras - Pete Fisher and Peggy MacCarthy. Joining them and fully expecting to be moved out of the way as we were right beside the exit door leading to the walkway outside we waited not knowing what would happen. Then something strange did happen, the accused came out of the side door and the escorts allowed us to stand there and then they stayed in that spot for at least two minutes and we took all the pics we needed.