Meanwhile, reporter David Hunn had arrived at St. Johns Mercy Hospital, where ambulances had taken the shooting victims, shortly after 9 p.m. He entered the building and inquired about the status of those shot, but the hospitals press secretary refused to tell him and insisted that he could not remain in the waiting room to interview visitors. Hunn took up a post in the parking lot, hoping to encounter visitors as they left.

He waited for close friends or family members of those hospitalized, but it proved difficult to find them. Hunn was not sure which of the hospitals visitors knew the victims, so he tried to catch up with and question all who left. Many people refused to speak to him, accusing him of being insensitive to families grief.

Even those who did talk to him often would not give their names. Hunn recalls that he was reluctant to quote in a news story an unknown family member [of a victim] or unknown friend of [a victims] family Its so unreliable, you dont know the persons name, you might not even know their relationship to the situation. [1] Several such sources gave Hunn names of fatalities, but he did not even relay them to the newsroom because he judged the information too suspect.

Among other problems, it was not clear where they got their information. It seemed quite likely that the hospital visitors were simply repeating what they saw playing on television news in the waiting roomwhich meant the news was already on STLtoday.com, or was speculation from the TV newsroom. Hunn did not want to get caught in the trap of creating a self-referential news cycle. He did not quote the anonymous hospital visitors.

Listen to Hunn describe reporting at the hospital. Length: 1 min 55 sec