Caught !

We scooped our competitors today on a story that has shocked the community.

25-year old Vanasa Swaissi was gunned down Thursday afternoon in the middle of a busy metro street.  Actually, it was just around the corner from our News 9 studios. When we pulled up to the crime scene her body was still propped up next to her car, in full view for neighbors and people passing by to see.

The 48-hours following her death had police scrambling for clues and detectives finally got their break Saturday.  Two warrants were obtained for two men who police believe were the gunmen.

It was shortly after 9:00 p.m. here in our newsroom and our assignment editor, Dave Stewart, started hearing some unusual chatter on the police scanners.  It's a classic example of what separates a good assignment editor from a ‘great' assignment editor.

Dave was hearing "gang unit" and "white car" and other tid-bits that were adding up to something big going down in an apartment complex on the northeast side of the city.

We hauled it out to the complex and arrived just as police were putting two suspects into the back of patrol cars.  After a little trivial pursuit with a police supervisor, we were able to confirm at least one of the two men in cuffs was a suspect in Swaissi's death.

The other man in custody was questionable, but we later confirmed it on Sunday he was, indeed, the second suspect.

Big props to Dave for picking up what sounded like meaningless chit-chat on police radios.   Bigger props to the cops for tracking these two accused killers down and getting them off our streets.

Rusty Surette

Rusty.surette@news9.net