Shot in the Dark (2017) s01e06 Episode Script
Dead of Night
I woke up with a call from my dad and a text from Howard.
I had to see what the hype was about.
That's the LA Times.
"Cameraman approaches suspected armed driver in LAPD pursuit.
" That's our buddy Victor.
I see an officer approaching the vehicle.
That appears to be a camera operator.
I hope it's not somebody from local media.
Could be a stringer.
But that is extremely dangerous, considering This individual has a weapon, so, I don't know who that yahoo is, but that's not something that officers want.
"I just want an interview.
" There's your interview, buddy.
"I just want an interview.
" That's what I'm talking about.
Look at that.
That is great footage.
It's been a rough day.
The one thing you don't want to do is become a story.
But I thought, well, you know what? This is a good chance to get a sound bite with this guy.
Turns out, it just opened up a shit storm.
He wasn't so proud of his moment there, but he sent an apology to the stations.
"Hello.
Today, I made a very reckless mistake that, regrettably, so many of your viewers saw.
Please be aware that I was taught those kind of shots I had today was the money shot.
I learned my lesson regardless.
" So, he's trying to say I taught him.
Do I advise my cameraman to do that? I advise my cameraman to get the shot that's necessary.
I'm not ashamed of it.
"My sincere apologies, Victor Park, LoudLabs News.
" We're out here documenting a war.
What we see in a week, most people do not see in an entire lifetime.
Today, I've got law enforcement and fire personnel calling nonstop about Victor from LoudLabs.
I can only imagine those actions were from how he was being trained.
Scott doesn't follow the rules.
There's no censoring.
He doesn't think about what he's doing, doesn't really care.
People that he interacts with, they assume we're all like that, and we're not.
It's the farthest from the truth.
We have a three-vehicle traffic collision on the 5 and Los Feliz Blvd.
Let's go and see if we can find that spot.
We've got a three-vehicle collision, one vehicle overturned, so, we're gonna get our asses up there and see what we can do.
Things are definitely getting more fierce between stringer companies.
We've got Scott packaging, and now we've got Victor being super careless.
These guys don't seem to care about their safety or their reputation.
We've got units on northbound and southbound.
So, this is kind of interesting.
Oh, the vehicle flipped over the freeway? No way.
Come on.
I don't see any competition.
That's good.
So, it looks like that Cadillac made it across the center divider.
It looks like everybody is out of the car and safe.
That is very rare, actually.
He's gonna push it off the freeway.
Oh, my God, it's working.
That's the shot, right there.
Sorry to interrupt, guys.
I'm Zak, with OnScene.
I gotta get an interview on this.
This is badass.
That is the investigating officer.
Or even if you got a new guy who has never been on camera before, and you wanna throw him under the bus, or under the truck in this case.
Stringers haven't always had the best reputation.
There's guys that make enemies, and guys that make friends.
When I show up on a scene and a fire captain comes up and says, "Hey, Zak.
Oh, you're with OnScene TV? Fantastic, man.
Good to see you're here.
Captain knows already.
We know where to get your stuff.
" Having that reputation and having that respect and that rapport with the professionals that we work with, that's my barometer of success.
It used to be three of us, Austin, Marc, and I, for the whole city.
And now with Austin out for a while, it's put an immense amount of pressure on me to cover Metro.
And since Scott and Zak have teams of people shooting for them, I'm just getting my ass handed to me on a daily basis.
I mean, I'm out all the time, I've done everything I can, I'm driving 250 miles a night trying to just keep up with these guys, and I'm exhausted.
Something's gotta give.
Fireworks.
You can kind of tell the difference between fireworks and a shooting.
Shooting's louder and echoes a little more, a little differently.
But what do I know? I know nothing.
Ooh! I know that.
Holy shit.
All right.
So, possible structure fire.
You know, you get evacuations in progress with flames going, that's a good story.
It very well could be the Story of the Night.
So, right now, it's a race to see which cameraman can get there first.
I'm going to that structure fire four blocks away from here.
Come on, come on, come on.
Dude, are you kidding me? No, no, I'm coming, you stay.
I'm coming.
Look at these fuckwits.
We gotta move, get there.
Christ.
Move! Fucking penis.
There it is.
It's gonna be right up here.
I can smell the fire.
Let's go check it out.
Howard's already here.
Hey, Scott.
Excuse me.
When Howard's on his A game, he's definitely a threat.
We're both fighting for the same shit.
The only way to fix that, outshoot him.
For the shot, I'll do what it takes.
I don't care about who got there first, I don't care about reputation.
I don't.
I just go about, hit record, and do my job.
I'll do what I do.
Where the fuck did Scott go? Did he just go inside? This could get interesting.
Because it's extremely dangerous.
We'll get as close as we can.
But Scott is Scott.
He's a madman.
Something's burning, I just can't find it.
It seems like it's under the house.
The best way to beat somebody in business is outwork them.
I fucking got the shot.
See you on the next one.
Just work harder.
That's all you gotta do.
Unless Howard puts his camera in that window, I definitely got the better shot.
Scott was all over the place.
We can't compete with that kind of, essentially, stupidity.
We're gonna head down and meet up with Nash.
Nash is one of our photographers who covers, like, some of the craziest gang violence out there.
Guy has no fear.
But he needs a check for a couple hits.
Might as well get him hooked up tonight.
Hey, what's up, man? - Yeah.
I see you on television.
- Good to see you, man.
- Let me get your check, dude.
- Wanna go for a ride-along thru the 'hood? Oh, my God.
You never know, Nash, I don't know.
- All right.
- Sorry, brother.
Sorry I couldn't meet up with you sooner.
Here you go.
- You good.
- All right, Nash.
Hit me up, all right? - Give me a call.
Stay safe.
- OnScene out.
See you, man.
Nash is such a character.
I'm just one of the veterans that's been stringing for 16 years for OnScene Television.
I'm attracted to the areas that most people are scared to shoot in.
Compton, Watts, Inglewood, South LA.
I live where I work.
Well, as a journalist, I kind of wanna give back to the community by posting their stories.
You know, I gotten shot at a few times doing this job and that's why I wear body armor and head gear.
To get in-depth with the streets, you definitely gotta know the hot spots, where law enforcement's gonna be.
Prior to them even getting called, you gotta be there before they get there.
So, we're gonna roll for the Crenshaw Takeover.
There's all these cars, different cars you're gonna see, they come down by the hundreds from Oakland and Fresno, or Arizona, and they ride their cars to this one location to do doughnuts in, which we are about to see in a second.
Let's see if I don't scare them off 'cause I don't want them to think I'm the police.
Hey! What that do? All right.
Give it up.
Give it up.
Crenshaw Takeover.
What we doing? Whoa, man! So, this is Crenshaw Takeover.
So, this is basically what everybody do, they come out to have fun.
Huh? He's with me.
- Who are you? - I'm with the press.
- You're with what? - The news, the press.
- OnScene Television.
- Who are these guys? - Put the camera down.
- No.
Hold up.
We with OnScene Television.
- OnScene Television? - Yeah.
- All right.
- We're just making sure.
They hang out the window, you know, get it in.
Kind of dangerous.
Of course, this draws attention of law enforcement.
Okay, so, the police is already on they way.
There's the helicopter.
So, we get a shot of the police going by, clearing out the street.
So, we basically just monitoring, seeing if the police will treat everybody right, and it looks like they are.
We are not going to get any hits.
Yeah, all right! Y'all be safe tonight, beautiful.
Victor wants to talk about some shit.
Hmm.
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Let's see what he has to say.
The man of the hour, what's up? How you doing? So, you've had some excitement.
You wanna talk to them.
It's what we do, we interview people.
And we get the shot.
You got the shot and tried to interview somebody.
You know, I was just so focused on getting that, uh, exclusive shot, but I caught I did talk to the stations.
In fact, I talked to them today.
Why, though? Why? Why do you feel you need to justify what you did? Because if I worked for a station, I wouldn't have done that.
Look, Victor, listen to me.
That pursuit was boring up until you.
And you gave them something to talk about.
A text from Howard asked if it was you, and I think Howard was jealous because you did something that he hasn't done yet.
Um Zak is spinning it, making it a big deal how wrong that is, but yet you did something that he didn't do or couldn't do.
If he is saying that, if Zak is saying that it's wrong, that's very hypocritical.
The other night, when we were out, Zak, we had a conversation, one-on-one.
Zak wanted to bring me over, and the whole thing is that he wanted to hire me It's not a secret that Zak is two-faced.
It's funny, because there's a rumor going around that I'm trying to sabotage OnScene.
It sounds like OnScene's trying to sabotage LoudLabs.
It's not that he wants you for him, he just wants you away from me.
- Absolutely.
- That's it.
Nothing to do with you joining his team.
It has everything to do with you leaving my team, plain and simple.
Uh, go out, be a good stringer, represent LoudLabs News well, and most importantly, be safe.
- All right.
- Have a good one.
Take care.
I've never had anybody try to take my guys except for Zak from OnScene.
And he's just trying to be a thorn in my side.
Fuck that.
You can try to take my people, but there's a reason why they're with me.
They had a sewer backup.
And they had a gasoline-powered snake running with all their workers inside, so, we're thinking carbon monoxide is what it means.
We're gonna go check it out.
Not something you hear every day, and that's what we're in the business of, going to things that don't happen every day.
Hopefully we get there before the competition.
Out of the way.
I'm gonna be going to a difficult respirations with EMS captains and tactical channels.
It says 11 minutes.
In five minutes, it will be there.
Just give me something exclusive, just to fuck over OnScene and LoudLabs.
Oh, come on, fuck me.
Out for a fucking Sunday drive? Coming through.
Keep your eye on here.
Come on, fucking move.
Get out of the way.
Man, the traffic is just crazy tonight.
- Turn right onto Main Street.
- It's gonna be here.
Oh, fuck me.
Roads down here are just complete garbage.
Finally, I actually beat Zak to something.
Fuck.
A whole line of that.
Yes.
To sell this one, one or two victims would be good.
And it should be There we go.
Oh, it looks like Howard's here.
Somebody's getting transported.
This could be a really good story.
Growing up as a twin, I'm extremely competitive in everything I do.
So, whether it's against my brother, whether it's against OnScene, I just have this complete drive and passion to beat these other guys.
But right now, I'm just gonna play the waiting game.
We're going to a shooting, 76th and Broadway.
Do you need a second RA for an additional victim? - Please, an additional victim.
- Stand by.
If we have one guy shot in the leg, that won't be news for us.
Thirty-three, let me get an additional RA, I got a second gunshot victim.
There we go.
That's what I'm talking about.
There's our suspects and possible shooting victim.
They ain't here.
We're staying behind this vehicle right now.
- Hey, back up! - I told you.
I hear what you said, but we're gonna stay right here for right now.
Back up.
Back up where? I wanna go forward.
- Back up.
- Fuck, dude.
This is fucking stupid.
Every fucking time.
I'm gonna get this from the other side.
- You haven't fed yet, right? - No.
Okay.
Yeah.
Hang out until we get a transport, and let's go feed.
I don't wanna do the Scott thing and run to the car, come back and miss the shot.
I mean, I get along with Zak, but I don't trust him.
Oh, there we go.
Some, uh, victims.
Control.
I've already got one confirmed transport.
It's gonna be a female with, um, carbon monoxide poisoning.
And it looks like they're probably gonna transport maybe one or two more.
They were snaking out a drain.
They left one of the gas generators on, and the four employees are suffering from carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide poisoning.
I got enough stuff.
I'm gonna try and feed it out before Zak finds out.
It's a city fire, no LAPD resources or anything.
It's not criminal.
Will do.
See you.
Where did he go? Let's get it in.
Hey, good evening.
It's Howard with RMG.
I'm sending in footage of the difficult-breathing situation in Downtown.
I'm just sending that in right now.
Okay.
Thanks.
Bye-bye.
Jack, my man.
Howard's here.
He might beat me on the feed by a couple of seconds, but just Howard from RMG.
So, give me a second.
I'll get it in ASAP.
Some stations gravitate toward a company's footage depending on who's shooting it.
So, if I'm out working, stations are gonna be excited by that and they'll wanna look at what I have.
And control.
We're up.
If you could process that for me and call over to 4.
Get ahold of Jack, please.
Zak is over there sending, but I think I got a five-minute head start.
If they don't use my stuff, I'm gonna be pissed.
Downtown Los Angeles, where firefighters responded to cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The workers were reportedly removing a sewage clog in a poorly ventilated building in the 2000 block of East Bay Street when they inhaled fumes.
One worker, a pregnant woman, 20 years old, was taken to hospital.
It's a cutthroat industry.
It really is.
And OnScene is very successful.
They have world domination in their sights, I'm sure.
But I think a lot of times, it's the relationship with the stations.
There's definitely some schmoozing going on.
Some behind-the-scene backhanders, maybe.
And they are not known to be the most professional shooters, but it is content that sells, so, if they get a lot of content, they're gonna beat us.
I'm going to where the other cameras are.
- You'll ruin the evidence.
- Okay.
But I see other cameras there.
I was just going over.
- Stay over there.
Sorry.
- Okay.
But move the other cameramen or I'm gonna go there.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
There's a guy dying there and you're having this discussion.
Yeah.
And I'm trying to document it.
I think during that whole little exchange, I might've missed the victim going in the ambulance.
So, is it cool? Eh Is it okay if they take a selfie and go through the scene? Are you fucking kidding me? So, our victim that was shot in the leg is right over there.
Looks like the one the officer was talking about that's dying.
Can you guys back up? You're in my crime scene.
The officer said stay on this sidewalk.
When I was there, he said scoot this way, so, I came over here.
He wasn't a detective.
I need you to get off the crime scene.
- Okay.
- This is all of this over here.
All right, well throw up some tape so I know where it's at, please.
Whatever.
It doesn't matter.
I got the shot I need.
I'm out of here.
Here's the thing with the cops.
I needed to get closer.
It's a game you play every day.
Sometimes means get in the way, sometimes means possibly getting arrested.
And I'm way too old to be getting arrested these days, but fuck, you know? Do what you gotta do.
- Victor, good morning.
- Good morning, Zak.
So, this is where I'm at right now.
You think it's best, you know, for me to come to you, to join your team.
But I want to know what do you have to offer to me something that I don't have from being with LoudLabs? If you don't see a benefit, I'm not gonna convince you.
I'm not gonna prove We're number one for a reason.
We work our asses off, you're in line with how we do things.
That's how I see it.
Scott just offers a lot of resources to me.
I'll be straight up.
If you don't know what we're about, if our ideologies aren't more in line than with what Scott's doing and how he does things, especially after your situation with that pursuit, I don't know how else to convince you.
I think OnScene is a great company.
I definitely appreciate the offer, but as of right now, I feel comfortable with LoudLabs.
- You know, I will stick with them.
- Cool, sounds good.
- All right.
Appreciate it.
- Victor, anytime, man.
Stay safe.
I don't know what Victor's plan is, but this is now the second time that he said that he wants to work with OnScene and then gotten cold feet the last minute.
The thing is, he started this.
He contacted us and said, "I'm interested in working with you guys," and, again, like I said, now it's a waste of time, and I don't respect that.
Let's get something juicy.
So, the structure fire turned into a barbecue.
I got a fire with nothing to show.
Physical rescue - at Harbor and Seaside.
- Something.
Fuck.
Yeah, it's in the Harbor.
There's somebody trapped.
That's now a physical rescue.
It is a fair way.
Twenty-four minutes.
I'm fucking going.
Fuck it.
Yeah, we're heading down to the Harbor.
It's gonna be on Seaside Avenue.
It takes a while to get down there.
We're at least 10 to 12 minutes out.
Oh, we got CHPs stopped on the northbound.
Oh, wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
Hey, control, do we have information on a TC northbound, uh, 110 at Manchester? See that? Car was underneath the big rig.
It's a 455.
It's a female hit, expanded, and we have LAPD We're taking that.
Control, hey, do me a favor, assign Steve on that TC in the Harbor.
I've got this one.
Fuck me.
It's a car underneath a big rig.
Shit.
Two physical rescues now.
Fuck.
Now, which one do we choose? Fuck it.
We're gonna get this one quick if the Highway Patrol haven't blocked the freeway.
So, there it is.
There's a big rig, there's a car underneath it, but I can't get to it.
Fuck.
It's just fucking money slipping away right now.
We're trying to get through traffic here.
We'll gain access.
But we'll go on the right side on the shoulder.
There it is.
You see the lights up there on the left? That's where we're going.
Cool.
You can see the lights up there and it can be really frustrating.
Come on.
Move.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
So, we've got one person in the driver's seat.
She looks like she might be okay, though.
With that visual, that really pushes it over the edge and makes it interesting.
There's all the fire engines coming.
That load of them.
Hopefully, this will create a path for us.
Come on, move.
Move, move, move.
And Zak's here as well.
Fucking unreal.
And we got it before the other stringers got it.
Zak beat me to the shot, so, we may have fucked up and not gone with the other one.
Without Austin, this is what happens.
I'm trying to cover South LA, the Valley, and everywhere else.
It's a problem when you're spread too thin.
Fuck.
That's just I mean, look at that.
Look at the devastation there.
So freaking lucky.
- She should buy a lotto ticket.
- Yeah, I know.
Yeah, I'm gonna be leaving this crash in just a second.
Of course Zak is here, all over it.
Oh, let's get all different angles.
Bloody stupid.
Howard? Yeah, we were en route to the Harbor and I looked over.
We're going southbound.
They didn't even dispatch this yet.
- Yeah.
- I looked across and I go, there's a truck stopped, there's a car under the truck.
I go, holy shit.
We flipped around and sheriffs got here.
- Well, you'll get 'em on the next one.
- Yeah, I will.
Gonna send this in.
You sending in anything? - Not worth it.
- All right.
Cool.
All right.
See you.
The competition is definitely getting tough.
Definitely tough.
Howard is working his complete ass off, but you can tell he's You know, he's out there mostly by himself.
For him to come out and try to compete at the level that Scott and I battle it out every night at, I feel like he's getting caught up in the middle.
It's more difficult for him to be successful, but I think I can try and help him out a little bit.
- Hey, Howard.
- Hey, how are you? Doing okay.
I was wondering if you'd wanna maybe meet up.
I just wanted to talk.
Um, yeah.
- Not too bad.
I'll take that.
- That's pretty damn good.
So, Howard, I was thinking the other day, and I have a proposition.
A partnership between OnScene and RMG.
- A partnership? - Correct.
Something that's beneficial for both parties.
This isn't us just buying you guys out and saying like, "Hey, we're gonna own RMG.
" That's never been my goal.
I don't wanna own you guys.
I wanna work with you guys.
- Yeah.
So, here's a question.
- Shoot.
- RMG logo.
- You'd have to drop it.
Hmm.
So, let me get this right.
Getting rid of the RMG logo, on something we built up in the last 15 years, that's not negotiable? We'd have to talk about that.
Yeah, we'll have to talk about that.
I mean, from a business point of view, the bottom line is our books.
- Right.
- If our books go up, makes sense for us.
- If our books go down - It doesn't make sense.
I don't see how they would go down.
Look at how many stories we send in a month, it's high 200s.
Jeez.
So, I just want you to think about it.
Um, to me, it's a no-brainer.
I had to see what the hype was about.
That's the LA Times.
"Cameraman approaches suspected armed driver in LAPD pursuit.
" That's our buddy Victor.
I see an officer approaching the vehicle.
That appears to be a camera operator.
I hope it's not somebody from local media.
Could be a stringer.
But that is extremely dangerous, considering This individual has a weapon, so, I don't know who that yahoo is, but that's not something that officers want.
"I just want an interview.
" There's your interview, buddy.
"I just want an interview.
" That's what I'm talking about.
Look at that.
That is great footage.
It's been a rough day.
The one thing you don't want to do is become a story.
But I thought, well, you know what? This is a good chance to get a sound bite with this guy.
Turns out, it just opened up a shit storm.
He wasn't so proud of his moment there, but he sent an apology to the stations.
"Hello.
Today, I made a very reckless mistake that, regrettably, so many of your viewers saw.
Please be aware that I was taught those kind of shots I had today was the money shot.
I learned my lesson regardless.
" So, he's trying to say I taught him.
Do I advise my cameraman to do that? I advise my cameraman to get the shot that's necessary.
I'm not ashamed of it.
"My sincere apologies, Victor Park, LoudLabs News.
" We're out here documenting a war.
What we see in a week, most people do not see in an entire lifetime.
Today, I've got law enforcement and fire personnel calling nonstop about Victor from LoudLabs.
I can only imagine those actions were from how he was being trained.
Scott doesn't follow the rules.
There's no censoring.
He doesn't think about what he's doing, doesn't really care.
People that he interacts with, they assume we're all like that, and we're not.
It's the farthest from the truth.
We have a three-vehicle traffic collision on the 5 and Los Feliz Blvd.
Let's go and see if we can find that spot.
We've got a three-vehicle collision, one vehicle overturned, so, we're gonna get our asses up there and see what we can do.
Things are definitely getting more fierce between stringer companies.
We've got Scott packaging, and now we've got Victor being super careless.
These guys don't seem to care about their safety or their reputation.
We've got units on northbound and southbound.
So, this is kind of interesting.
Oh, the vehicle flipped over the freeway? No way.
Come on.
I don't see any competition.
That's good.
So, it looks like that Cadillac made it across the center divider.
It looks like everybody is out of the car and safe.
That is very rare, actually.
He's gonna push it off the freeway.
Oh, my God, it's working.
That's the shot, right there.
Sorry to interrupt, guys.
I'm Zak, with OnScene.
I gotta get an interview on this.
This is badass.
That is the investigating officer.
Or even if you got a new guy who has never been on camera before, and you wanna throw him under the bus, or under the truck in this case.
Stringers haven't always had the best reputation.
There's guys that make enemies, and guys that make friends.
When I show up on a scene and a fire captain comes up and says, "Hey, Zak.
Oh, you're with OnScene TV? Fantastic, man.
Good to see you're here.
Captain knows already.
We know where to get your stuff.
" Having that reputation and having that respect and that rapport with the professionals that we work with, that's my barometer of success.
It used to be three of us, Austin, Marc, and I, for the whole city.
And now with Austin out for a while, it's put an immense amount of pressure on me to cover Metro.
And since Scott and Zak have teams of people shooting for them, I'm just getting my ass handed to me on a daily basis.
I mean, I'm out all the time, I've done everything I can, I'm driving 250 miles a night trying to just keep up with these guys, and I'm exhausted.
Something's gotta give.
Fireworks.
You can kind of tell the difference between fireworks and a shooting.
Shooting's louder and echoes a little more, a little differently.
But what do I know? I know nothing.
Ooh! I know that.
Holy shit.
All right.
So, possible structure fire.
You know, you get evacuations in progress with flames going, that's a good story.
It very well could be the Story of the Night.
So, right now, it's a race to see which cameraman can get there first.
I'm going to that structure fire four blocks away from here.
Come on, come on, come on.
Dude, are you kidding me? No, no, I'm coming, you stay.
I'm coming.
Look at these fuckwits.
We gotta move, get there.
Christ.
Move! Fucking penis.
There it is.
It's gonna be right up here.
I can smell the fire.
Let's go check it out.
Howard's already here.
Hey, Scott.
Excuse me.
When Howard's on his A game, he's definitely a threat.
We're both fighting for the same shit.
The only way to fix that, outshoot him.
For the shot, I'll do what it takes.
I don't care about who got there first, I don't care about reputation.
I don't.
I just go about, hit record, and do my job.
I'll do what I do.
Where the fuck did Scott go? Did he just go inside? This could get interesting.
Because it's extremely dangerous.
We'll get as close as we can.
But Scott is Scott.
He's a madman.
Something's burning, I just can't find it.
It seems like it's under the house.
The best way to beat somebody in business is outwork them.
I fucking got the shot.
See you on the next one.
Just work harder.
That's all you gotta do.
Unless Howard puts his camera in that window, I definitely got the better shot.
Scott was all over the place.
We can't compete with that kind of, essentially, stupidity.
We're gonna head down and meet up with Nash.
Nash is one of our photographers who covers, like, some of the craziest gang violence out there.
Guy has no fear.
But he needs a check for a couple hits.
Might as well get him hooked up tonight.
Hey, what's up, man? - Yeah.
I see you on television.
- Good to see you, man.
- Let me get your check, dude.
- Wanna go for a ride-along thru the 'hood? Oh, my God.
You never know, Nash, I don't know.
- All right.
- Sorry, brother.
Sorry I couldn't meet up with you sooner.
Here you go.
- You good.
- All right, Nash.
Hit me up, all right? - Give me a call.
Stay safe.
- OnScene out.
See you, man.
Nash is such a character.
I'm just one of the veterans that's been stringing for 16 years for OnScene Television.
I'm attracted to the areas that most people are scared to shoot in.
Compton, Watts, Inglewood, South LA.
I live where I work.
Well, as a journalist, I kind of wanna give back to the community by posting their stories.
You know, I gotten shot at a few times doing this job and that's why I wear body armor and head gear.
To get in-depth with the streets, you definitely gotta know the hot spots, where law enforcement's gonna be.
Prior to them even getting called, you gotta be there before they get there.
So, we're gonna roll for the Crenshaw Takeover.
There's all these cars, different cars you're gonna see, they come down by the hundreds from Oakland and Fresno, or Arizona, and they ride their cars to this one location to do doughnuts in, which we are about to see in a second.
Let's see if I don't scare them off 'cause I don't want them to think I'm the police.
Hey! What that do? All right.
Give it up.
Give it up.
Crenshaw Takeover.
What we doing? Whoa, man! So, this is Crenshaw Takeover.
So, this is basically what everybody do, they come out to have fun.
Huh? He's with me.
- Who are you? - I'm with the press.
- You're with what? - The news, the press.
- OnScene Television.
- Who are these guys? - Put the camera down.
- No.
Hold up.
We with OnScene Television.
- OnScene Television? - Yeah.
- All right.
- We're just making sure.
They hang out the window, you know, get it in.
Kind of dangerous.
Of course, this draws attention of law enforcement.
Okay, so, the police is already on they way.
There's the helicopter.
So, we get a shot of the police going by, clearing out the street.
So, we basically just monitoring, seeing if the police will treat everybody right, and it looks like they are.
We are not going to get any hits.
Yeah, all right! Y'all be safe tonight, beautiful.
Victor wants to talk about some shit.
Hmm.
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Let's see what he has to say.
The man of the hour, what's up? How you doing? So, you've had some excitement.
You wanna talk to them.
It's what we do, we interview people.
And we get the shot.
You got the shot and tried to interview somebody.
You know, I was just so focused on getting that, uh, exclusive shot, but I caught I did talk to the stations.
In fact, I talked to them today.
Why, though? Why? Why do you feel you need to justify what you did? Because if I worked for a station, I wouldn't have done that.
Look, Victor, listen to me.
That pursuit was boring up until you.
And you gave them something to talk about.
A text from Howard asked if it was you, and I think Howard was jealous because you did something that he hasn't done yet.
Um Zak is spinning it, making it a big deal how wrong that is, but yet you did something that he didn't do or couldn't do.
If he is saying that, if Zak is saying that it's wrong, that's very hypocritical.
The other night, when we were out, Zak, we had a conversation, one-on-one.
Zak wanted to bring me over, and the whole thing is that he wanted to hire me It's not a secret that Zak is two-faced.
It's funny, because there's a rumor going around that I'm trying to sabotage OnScene.
It sounds like OnScene's trying to sabotage LoudLabs.
It's not that he wants you for him, he just wants you away from me.
- Absolutely.
- That's it.
Nothing to do with you joining his team.
It has everything to do with you leaving my team, plain and simple.
Uh, go out, be a good stringer, represent LoudLabs News well, and most importantly, be safe.
- All right.
- Have a good one.
Take care.
I've never had anybody try to take my guys except for Zak from OnScene.
And he's just trying to be a thorn in my side.
Fuck that.
You can try to take my people, but there's a reason why they're with me.
They had a sewer backup.
And they had a gasoline-powered snake running with all their workers inside, so, we're thinking carbon monoxide is what it means.
We're gonna go check it out.
Not something you hear every day, and that's what we're in the business of, going to things that don't happen every day.
Hopefully we get there before the competition.
Out of the way.
I'm gonna be going to a difficult respirations with EMS captains and tactical channels.
It says 11 minutes.
In five minutes, it will be there.
Just give me something exclusive, just to fuck over OnScene and LoudLabs.
Oh, come on, fuck me.
Out for a fucking Sunday drive? Coming through.
Keep your eye on here.
Come on, fucking move.
Get out of the way.
Man, the traffic is just crazy tonight.
- Turn right onto Main Street.
- It's gonna be here.
Oh, fuck me.
Roads down here are just complete garbage.
Finally, I actually beat Zak to something.
Fuck.
A whole line of that.
Yes.
To sell this one, one or two victims would be good.
And it should be There we go.
Oh, it looks like Howard's here.
Somebody's getting transported.
This could be a really good story.
Growing up as a twin, I'm extremely competitive in everything I do.
So, whether it's against my brother, whether it's against OnScene, I just have this complete drive and passion to beat these other guys.
But right now, I'm just gonna play the waiting game.
We're going to a shooting, 76th and Broadway.
Do you need a second RA for an additional victim? - Please, an additional victim.
- Stand by.
If we have one guy shot in the leg, that won't be news for us.
Thirty-three, let me get an additional RA, I got a second gunshot victim.
There we go.
That's what I'm talking about.
There's our suspects and possible shooting victim.
They ain't here.
We're staying behind this vehicle right now.
- Hey, back up! - I told you.
I hear what you said, but we're gonna stay right here for right now.
Back up.
Back up where? I wanna go forward.
- Back up.
- Fuck, dude.
This is fucking stupid.
Every fucking time.
I'm gonna get this from the other side.
- You haven't fed yet, right? - No.
Okay.
Yeah.
Hang out until we get a transport, and let's go feed.
I don't wanna do the Scott thing and run to the car, come back and miss the shot.
I mean, I get along with Zak, but I don't trust him.
Oh, there we go.
Some, uh, victims.
Control.
I've already got one confirmed transport.
It's gonna be a female with, um, carbon monoxide poisoning.
And it looks like they're probably gonna transport maybe one or two more.
They were snaking out a drain.
They left one of the gas generators on, and the four employees are suffering from carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide poisoning.
I got enough stuff.
I'm gonna try and feed it out before Zak finds out.
It's a city fire, no LAPD resources or anything.
It's not criminal.
Will do.
See you.
Where did he go? Let's get it in.
Hey, good evening.
It's Howard with RMG.
I'm sending in footage of the difficult-breathing situation in Downtown.
I'm just sending that in right now.
Okay.
Thanks.
Bye-bye.
Jack, my man.
Howard's here.
He might beat me on the feed by a couple of seconds, but just Howard from RMG.
So, give me a second.
I'll get it in ASAP.
Some stations gravitate toward a company's footage depending on who's shooting it.
So, if I'm out working, stations are gonna be excited by that and they'll wanna look at what I have.
And control.
We're up.
If you could process that for me and call over to 4.
Get ahold of Jack, please.
Zak is over there sending, but I think I got a five-minute head start.
If they don't use my stuff, I'm gonna be pissed.
Downtown Los Angeles, where firefighters responded to cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The workers were reportedly removing a sewage clog in a poorly ventilated building in the 2000 block of East Bay Street when they inhaled fumes.
One worker, a pregnant woman, 20 years old, was taken to hospital.
It's a cutthroat industry.
It really is.
And OnScene is very successful.
They have world domination in their sights, I'm sure.
But I think a lot of times, it's the relationship with the stations.
There's definitely some schmoozing going on.
Some behind-the-scene backhanders, maybe.
And they are not known to be the most professional shooters, but it is content that sells, so, if they get a lot of content, they're gonna beat us.
I'm going to where the other cameras are.
- You'll ruin the evidence.
- Okay.
But I see other cameras there.
I was just going over.
- Stay over there.
Sorry.
- Okay.
But move the other cameramen or I'm gonna go there.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
There's a guy dying there and you're having this discussion.
Yeah.
And I'm trying to document it.
I think during that whole little exchange, I might've missed the victim going in the ambulance.
So, is it cool? Eh Is it okay if they take a selfie and go through the scene? Are you fucking kidding me? So, our victim that was shot in the leg is right over there.
Looks like the one the officer was talking about that's dying.
Can you guys back up? You're in my crime scene.
The officer said stay on this sidewalk.
When I was there, he said scoot this way, so, I came over here.
He wasn't a detective.
I need you to get off the crime scene.
- Okay.
- This is all of this over here.
All right, well throw up some tape so I know where it's at, please.
Whatever.
It doesn't matter.
I got the shot I need.
I'm out of here.
Here's the thing with the cops.
I needed to get closer.
It's a game you play every day.
Sometimes means get in the way, sometimes means possibly getting arrested.
And I'm way too old to be getting arrested these days, but fuck, you know? Do what you gotta do.
- Victor, good morning.
- Good morning, Zak.
So, this is where I'm at right now.
You think it's best, you know, for me to come to you, to join your team.
But I want to know what do you have to offer to me something that I don't have from being with LoudLabs? If you don't see a benefit, I'm not gonna convince you.
I'm not gonna prove We're number one for a reason.
We work our asses off, you're in line with how we do things.
That's how I see it.
Scott just offers a lot of resources to me.
I'll be straight up.
If you don't know what we're about, if our ideologies aren't more in line than with what Scott's doing and how he does things, especially after your situation with that pursuit, I don't know how else to convince you.
I think OnScene is a great company.
I definitely appreciate the offer, but as of right now, I feel comfortable with LoudLabs.
- You know, I will stick with them.
- Cool, sounds good.
- All right.
Appreciate it.
- Victor, anytime, man.
Stay safe.
I don't know what Victor's plan is, but this is now the second time that he said that he wants to work with OnScene and then gotten cold feet the last minute.
The thing is, he started this.
He contacted us and said, "I'm interested in working with you guys," and, again, like I said, now it's a waste of time, and I don't respect that.
Let's get something juicy.
So, the structure fire turned into a barbecue.
I got a fire with nothing to show.
Physical rescue - at Harbor and Seaside.
- Something.
Fuck.
Yeah, it's in the Harbor.
There's somebody trapped.
That's now a physical rescue.
It is a fair way.
Twenty-four minutes.
I'm fucking going.
Fuck it.
Yeah, we're heading down to the Harbor.
It's gonna be on Seaside Avenue.
It takes a while to get down there.
We're at least 10 to 12 minutes out.
Oh, we got CHPs stopped on the northbound.
Oh, wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
Hey, control, do we have information on a TC northbound, uh, 110 at Manchester? See that? Car was underneath the big rig.
It's a 455.
It's a female hit, expanded, and we have LAPD We're taking that.
Control, hey, do me a favor, assign Steve on that TC in the Harbor.
I've got this one.
Fuck me.
It's a car underneath a big rig.
Shit.
Two physical rescues now.
Fuck.
Now, which one do we choose? Fuck it.
We're gonna get this one quick if the Highway Patrol haven't blocked the freeway.
So, there it is.
There's a big rig, there's a car underneath it, but I can't get to it.
Fuck.
It's just fucking money slipping away right now.
We're trying to get through traffic here.
We'll gain access.
But we'll go on the right side on the shoulder.
There it is.
You see the lights up there on the left? That's where we're going.
Cool.
You can see the lights up there and it can be really frustrating.
Come on.
Move.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
So, we've got one person in the driver's seat.
She looks like she might be okay, though.
With that visual, that really pushes it over the edge and makes it interesting.
There's all the fire engines coming.
That load of them.
Hopefully, this will create a path for us.
Come on, move.
Move, move, move.
And Zak's here as well.
Fucking unreal.
And we got it before the other stringers got it.
Zak beat me to the shot, so, we may have fucked up and not gone with the other one.
Without Austin, this is what happens.
I'm trying to cover South LA, the Valley, and everywhere else.
It's a problem when you're spread too thin.
Fuck.
That's just I mean, look at that.
Look at the devastation there.
So freaking lucky.
- She should buy a lotto ticket.
- Yeah, I know.
Yeah, I'm gonna be leaving this crash in just a second.
Of course Zak is here, all over it.
Oh, let's get all different angles.
Bloody stupid.
Howard? Yeah, we were en route to the Harbor and I looked over.
We're going southbound.
They didn't even dispatch this yet.
- Yeah.
- I looked across and I go, there's a truck stopped, there's a car under the truck.
I go, holy shit.
We flipped around and sheriffs got here.
- Well, you'll get 'em on the next one.
- Yeah, I will.
Gonna send this in.
You sending in anything? - Not worth it.
- All right.
Cool.
All right.
See you.
The competition is definitely getting tough.
Definitely tough.
Howard is working his complete ass off, but you can tell he's You know, he's out there mostly by himself.
For him to come out and try to compete at the level that Scott and I battle it out every night at, I feel like he's getting caught up in the middle.
It's more difficult for him to be successful, but I think I can try and help him out a little bit.
- Hey, Howard.
- Hey, how are you? Doing okay.
I was wondering if you'd wanna maybe meet up.
I just wanted to talk.
Um, yeah.
- Not too bad.
I'll take that.
- That's pretty damn good.
So, Howard, I was thinking the other day, and I have a proposition.
A partnership between OnScene and RMG.
- A partnership? - Correct.
Something that's beneficial for both parties.
This isn't us just buying you guys out and saying like, "Hey, we're gonna own RMG.
" That's never been my goal.
I don't wanna own you guys.
I wanna work with you guys.
- Yeah.
So, here's a question.
- Shoot.
- RMG logo.
- You'd have to drop it.
Hmm.
So, let me get this right.
Getting rid of the RMG logo, on something we built up in the last 15 years, that's not negotiable? We'd have to talk about that.
Yeah, we'll have to talk about that.
I mean, from a business point of view, the bottom line is our books.
- Right.
- If our books go up, makes sense for us.
- If our books go down - It doesn't make sense.
I don't see how they would go down.
Look at how many stories we send in a month, it's high 200s.
Jeez.
So, I just want you to think about it.
Um, to me, it's a no-brainer.