I'm going to start posting some of the articles that I've written in the past year. This first one was a surprise in a couple of ways. First of all, it was a spot news event so it was an unplanned surprise assignment. I was working quietly in my home office when I heard about it and ran over there to cover it. I got right up front due to knowing some people on the scene. The second surprise came when Larry Harmon, the editor at the Beach and Bay Press called me one day in October to say that it had won an award for the newspaper at the Independent Free Papers of America (http://www.ifpa.com/) annual conference. This came as a great surprise to me as I had no idea that it had been entered in the competition! The paper got a nice plaque and I got a meal out and beers on the editors all thanks to Larry who was the one who had submitted it to the judges in the first place. Here's the article as it appeared in the paper.
The Beach & Bay Press, Thursday June 5, 2008:
When Marlene Pernicano stumbled into the kitchen of her family's restaurant on Turquoise Street Friday night her father - owner John Pernicano - thought that she was wearing some sort of costume.
Marlene was ashen, covered in blood. One of her forearms was badly broken - allegedly the result of a severe beating with a claw hammer at the hands of Walter Cordell, her ex-boyfriend.
Cordell, 52, was supposed to be moving out of the house at
724 Wrelton Drive, across the restaurant's parking lot, where he lived for a short time with Marlene.
"He told her, 'Close your eyes and turn around. I have a surprise for you,'" said Marlene's older brother Johnny. "Then he started hitting her with a hammer."
Despite her serious injuries, Marlene was able to make it to restaurant for help after Cordell fled, leaving her for dead.
Firefighters and paramedics from Station 21 in Pacific Beach responded to the call and quickly transported Marlene to the hospital.
John says that she has already received more than 100 stitches in her head and will undergo surgery to perform a bone graft on her broken arm when she is strong enough.
According to police reports, Cordell fled in a green Landrover.
Early the next morning, a neighbor noticed that the Landrover was back in front of the house next to Pernicano's Family Restaurant.
Police arrived and the situation soon escalated into a full SWAT operation.
Turquoise Street was taped off between La Jolla and Mission boulevards, traffic was diverted and negotiators began communicating with Cordell via bull horn and "throw phone" - a two-way communication device that the SWAT team threw into the house after the power, water and phone lines were cut.
Inside Pernicano's Pizza Restaurant, John and Johnny stood watching the operation in disbelief as they fielded calls from relatives and customers.
SWAT officers on the scene described Cordell as "a determined individual" because he continued to resist ever-increasing doses of non-lethal gases that they were firing into the house via windows, vents and doors.
After each assault, one of fire station 21's trucks would pump water into the house in case a fire had been started by one of the gas rounds.
At about 10:30 p.m. - approximately 11 hours after the standoff began, a police K9 unit was sent into the home. Cordell walked outside and surrendered a few minutes later.
John Pernicano was standing a few feet away and took a photograph of Cordell being arrested and handcuffed.
“I can’t conceive of someone who would do that to my daughter” says John Pernicano. “Everybody knows Marlene. Everybody loves Marlene” he says. She has worked at the restaurant most of her life like the rest of the Pernicano children. “I started her at nine years old, dishwashing. Standing on a milk crate so that she could push the button and run the dishes through”, says John.
No comments:
Post a Comment