News Writing and Reporting
Assignment No. 3
Pretend
the following information came from your notes.
Use it to write a lead for each one. You will write four leads, one lead
for each set of notes. You must follow the checklist I’ve given
you. You must write leads that are 30 or
fewer words, are only one sentence, do not start with “A,” “An,” “The,” follow
AP style, are accurate, are complete sentences, etc. Good luck!
1. The discovery was made late Tuesday by
a group of 4 young boys playing in a field 3 miles east of Torrance. They found the skeletal remains of an
unidentified person. Sheriff’s deputies called to the scene say they were
unable to find anything that might identify the victim and that they know of no
one missing from the area. “The remains have been there at least six months,” one
of the deputies says. “We really have no other information, other than that we
know it's human skeletal remains.” A
forensic archaeologist from the State Crime Laboratory will examine the bones
later Tuesday to determine the person’s sex and approximate age and height.
2. A 19-year-old shoplifting suspect died
Tuesday. Police identified him as Timothy Milan. He lived at 1112 Huron Avenue
and was employed as a cook at a restaurant in Redondo Beach. A guard at the
Broadway Dept. Store told police he saw Milan stuff 2 sweaters down his pants
legs, then walk past a checkout line and out of the store. The guard began to
chase Milan, who ran, and 3 bystanders
joined in the pursuit. They caught up with Milan, and, when he resisted,
a bystander applied a headlock to him. Milan collapsed as officers arrived. An
autopsy revealed Milan died due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Police
Tuesday say they do not plan to charge anyone involved in the case with a crime
because, “it was a case of excusable homicide.”
3. There was a hit and run accident in
Torrance Tuesday. It happened on Redondo Beach boulevard, just east of the Prairie avenue
intersection. The source of the story is
police spokesman Roger Clinton. A 3 year
old boy, Jonathan Beltran, who lived with his parents at 101 W. First St., was
struck and killed. His parents are
Robert and Louise Beltran. The boy was
dead at the scene from head injuries, Clinton said. About an hour later, Butler Adamson, 22 or
1616 W. Eighth St., called police and admitted that he struck the child as the
toddler was crossing Redondo Beach.
Adamson was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an
accident. Adamson, was booked into city
jail Monday night and released on his own recognizance Tuesday morning after
appearing in Justice Court.
4. The U.S. Justice Depart. issued a
report in Washington, D.C. Tuesday about the number of prisoners in state and
federal prisons. The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that
the number of prisoners in prisons increased 9.9 % last year, compared with an
8.6 percent increase during the previous year and an 8.1 % increase the year
before that. The four states with the largest prison populations were Texas
with 35,354, California with 33,502, New York with 27,675 and Florida with
26,987. The total number of prisoners in all state and federal prisons as of
the last day of the year last year reached an all-time record high of 405,371.
The report says the number of prisoners is rising largely due to new state laws
that impose mandatory sentences in serious crimes and restrict parole, so that
more persons are being sentenced to prison and each prisoner tends to remain
their longer.
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