OPINION: Recapping the week thus far

Processing the week thus far …

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Joe Culpepper, Bogalusa’s chief of police, was processing paperwork for 17 warrants that were to be served Tuesday morning when things started turning upside down Sunday night.

“I was here (in his office), working on that paperwork, when the call came in,” he said.

“The call.”

“The call” he was referring to was the one that came it at 8:44 p.m. and advised an off-duty police officer was firing his gun and officers were responding.

Culpepper, who normally has a welcoming smile on his face, wasn’t smiling as he recounted the events of the evening, including the decision on who would lead the initial investigation and response.

Then, with the processing of warrant paperwork still needing to be done, Culpepper called out Det. Kendall Bullen, who was in the process of heading to bed when his phone rang.

“I think it was 2:30 or so when he finished,” Culpepper said, a fact Bullen confirmed about 4:20 Tuesday morning at the National Guard Readiness Center as another in what has been promised to be a series of drug busts was getting ready to go down.

And so, when wpnewsblog began chasing the Chief at 6:50 Monday morning, he was trying to get some shut-eye after pulling a two-tiered all-nighter. There’s no reason he wouldn’t have his cell phone off and there was no reason he wouldn’t be coming to work around noon after the night he — and his department — had been through. And wpnewsblog fired an unnecessary shot across the bow because of the late arrival and the quest to get the information.

And we all know the public details of the story up to this point … that off-duty PFC Anton Atkins allegedly committed armed robbery, discharging a weapon in the process, and was arrested.

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But …

… Atkins’ alleged victim, 31-year-old Willie Holloway of Angie, has anything but a squeaky clean reputation. He was one of 17 sought in Tuesday’s drug raid and was one of two officers were warned about as being potentially dangerous.

Holloway, who we understand went to the local newspaper to “tell his story,” said he was “just riding around” when Atkins and a second person, Marvin Austin, Jr.,  pulled his vehicle in front of Holloway’s.

Austin, incidentally, was the name of the second person wpnewsblog was given and referred to in the initial reporting of the incident at 9:52 Monday morning. Austin wound up being arrested on Sunday, but not in connection with Holloway’s claims, instead on an FTA.

So, how many of us go out “just riding around” with $700 in our pockets? On a Sunday night? At the end of two streets that run into the back entrance of Northshore Technical College’s Sullivan Campus?

Yeah, right. You get the same picture we did.

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As Tuesday’s drug bust was getting started, a familiar face walked in the back door of the armory — Charles Mizell.

It wasn’t a public ribbon cutting where the cameras would be on him and the big, fake scissors in-hand, but it was just after 5:20 a.m. and he was there as mayor, supporting his officers.

And every time someone brought in a bad guy, Mizell had an encouraging word for them. When it was a Bogalusa officer, he took the extra step of telling them he appreciated what they were doing and it was a job well done.

It may not seem like much to the cynics among us, but I overheard more than one member of the force make a comment about his presence, followed by a “That’s cool” or another phrase that indicated it made them feel a bit better about the support they get.

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And finally — for this recap — we’ve made contact with several members of the family of the late Bogalusa Fire Capt. Anthony J. Fiorenza, who is the only firefighter to have died in the line of duty in Bogalusa fire department history.

The 43^rd anniversary of the fire was last Friday and, after wpnewsblog asked Chief Richard Moody about it, the department hastily organized a memorial observance at the station on West 8^th, where Fiorenza had been made captain just four days prior to his death.

We’d like to say there was a good turnout, but there wasn’t. In fact, other than yours truly and the firefighters themselves, the only other observers were Barbara Crawford and her YWCA Photography Day Camp class — Eden Breazeale, Olivia Kennedy, Makayla Ramser, Jayla Buchanan, Katelyn Gray and Dana Breazeale.

After the two stories appeared on wpnewsblog — the only two published about the memorial observance — we heard from Fiorenza’s sole surviving sister and his daughter.

From his sister, Mary Dugan-Brignac, on Sunday: “Mr. Walker, thank you very much for this article.  I am Anthony's only living sibling, and I live here in Bogalusa, about 8 blocks from the Pleasant Hill Fire Station.  Of course, I attended the Memorial in July 2004, along with my now deceased sister Lena Jacobs.  My picture appeared in the Daily News with the story about the memorial.  My brother has a daughter and grandson who live near Slidell and a son and granddaughters who live in Baker, LA.”

On Wednesday, I heard from Toni Fiorenza McKinney, his daughter. She and her husband and her 21-year-old son — Fiorenza’s grandson — live in Pearl River.

As he requested, I have forwarded the contact information to Chief Moody so he can get the family involved next year when the now-annual memorial observance will be held.

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To all of you who read and follow wpnewsblog, a sincere thank you.

Since our first post, on the spring nursing graduation at Northshore Technical College on May 17, our site has been visited more than 28,000 times. Yes, there have been some big news stories that drove those numbers, but I also believe there was some steady, constant reporting that helped a bunch, too.

Unless you log on via phone, there’s a counter on the right hand side of our page that shows you how many visitors we’ve had and I also want you to know we now have more than 200 followers on Facebook (WPNewsBlog). We’re on Twitter, too, but I’m still learning the nuances of tweeting, so for right now, I feel like a twit in that arena.

But again … thank you for your support and for passing along those news tips!

(John H. Walker is editor/publisher of wpnewsblog. He is a 40-year veteran of the communications industry, having worked in newspaper, radio and television prior to opening his own consulting firm and venturing into social media on his own. He may be reached at 789-0918 or at wpnews@ymail.com)