Lakeland Bomb Threat Diffused | Part 2

It Looks like we already have an update to the Lakeland Bomb Threat. BayNews9, and others, is reporting that 2 SouthEastern students and 1 alum turned themselves in, with attorneys in tow, for making and placing the explosive devices.

Back to my live coverage summarization: 

I saw the update on Twitter by the LPD at 10:29. My coverage on Twitter followed shortly there after. 

Fox 13 Coverage | Article posted at 10:51 AM: Best live coverage. With in Just a few minutes of finding the Twitter post I saw the Fox 13 coverage. Several minutes into it they had a photo, posting a total of 3. They had a video shortly after for the midday news. 

ABC Action News Coverage | The coverage I found next. For most of the morning it was lacking, just a single photo, and later I found a video probably made for the evening news. 

TBO.com/Tribune | I then looked to TBO, it was updated with just a single photo, and now video. They have an office in Lakeland, and the Polk County News blog, which still has nothing.

The Ledger | I didn’t see the article until around noon, even though the article says it was posted at 10:44. Strange thing is there was a comment posted at 10:04 . I didn’t see photos until after the blank  ”News Alert Blast” they sent out twice at 12:11 & 12:14. Then at 1:54 they sent another blast that featured The Obama Stem Cell story from the Associated Press (with a picture), over the Bomb Threat. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. They do now have 7 photos and a video posted. That really wasn’t reassuring while this was going on. In fact the video is great, looks like they were allowed to film the detonation from the parking garage. It would have been great if I could have seen it live, and not been left hanging.  The technology is so easy and cheap to use, I do not understand why they haven’t implemented it yet.  As the “home town” media outlet I expect more. Demand it. 

About 1pm I walked down to the garage from the Chamber and took the photos and had a chance to ask Jack Gillen, Lakeland PD spokesman a couple questions. It was quite easy to find out what was going on, so I don’t believe access to information was a problem at all. 

BayNews9 | I didn’t know about their coverage untill I walked down to the site and saw their TV Truck. Its just not a normal source for me, so when I pulled out the laptop outside Harry’s I appreciated finding the 2nd video of the day. Not sure if there was live coverage of

TampaBay 10 | Its 10:45  and I still don’t see a mention of this, and THEY were at the scene. I just don’t understand, why they don’t even mention the story. If you find it please let me know.

I followed up with Asst Chief Bill LePere, who is running LPDs Social Media engagement, about access to the survelliance video of the 3 men, and he said they would post to Facebook if its released.  I believe LPD understands the Social Media phenom more then some of the media outlets. Great Job today Chief LePere. I look forward to seeing more. 

I hope to keep you updated with any new devlopments on this. So keep a look out.

Author: Aaron J Bates