One tragic story after another the last couple of days. Last week 3 Wolcott high school students died in a car accident. The driver of the car, 17 year old Anthony Aspruzzese, lost control of his Subaru and crashed into a utility truck. In the car with him was his 14 year old sister Jessica and 15 year old friend Thamara Correa. We had a few debates in the newsroom and in the live truck on how much we should indulge into Anthony’s driving record. According to the D.M.V the teenager had several driving citations and recently had his license returned to him after a D.U.I. We decided to share the information as tastefully as possible keeping his family in mind.
On Friday we covered the death of a 2 year old boy. Aidan Halter drowned in the tub while his grandmother Marcia Maglisco was watching him. At first police ruled it accidental but on Monday the 911 call was released. The 62 year old grandmother told the dispatcher Aidan slipped in the tub and banged his head. She then admitted she left the baby lying in the tub for at least ten minutes before calling police. She claimed she was psychotic and wanted police to come arrest her. Maglisco was charged with risk of injury to a minor. She hung herself a day before her court appearance. Now, the family is mourning the loss of a child and a mother.
This story also prompted several debates in the newsroom. First, should we even cover this story at all(originally we all thought it was just a tragic accident) and then how much of the 911 tape should be released on air after Maglisco died. We decided to leave the decision up to our viewers. The entire transcript and audio of the 911 call is on our website.
Today I covered the death of Killingworth native Sgt. Jason Lantieri. The 25 year old lost his life in the line of duty in Iraq. He was scheduled to come home in January.
There are weeks that are very slow when it comes to news. Unfortunately, in this case, the last few days have been tragically busy.
