Photojournalist
Tom Fox captured this image before running behind a column. Fox's first
instinct when he saw the gunman had been to reach for his camera. (Tom Fox/The
Dallas Morning News via AP)
June 18, 2019 at
7:20 AM
A gunman
clad in a mask, tactical gear and high-powered rifle opened fire outside a
federal building in Dallas on Monday, causing alarm and panic but no injuries
before the man was fatally shot by the police.
The shooting
was reported widely. But perhaps the best
documentation of the incident came from Tom Fox, a photographer for the Dallas
Morning News.
Fox was
there at the beginning of what would have been a typical day for any metro
journalist: he was headed to the inauguration for the city’s new mayor but
first stopped by the building, which houses a federal courthouse, to take photos
of a defendant in a case about charter school fraud.
So he was
waiting right in front of the building when the gunman, whom authorities identified as former Army infantryman Brian Isaack Clyde,
showed up and opened fire.
Instead of running, Fox’s first instinct was to
take photos. The results offered a rare glimpse of an active shooting from the
perspective of someone in the immediate path of danger.
Fox captured one of the gunman, taken from just a few
meters away, as the man approached the building in a low walk, his gloved hands
holding a gun and ammunition clips racked on his belt. Authorities later said
that the man had five 30-round magazines.
He also got photos of people, a security guard and a man
in a suit fleeing as the gunman released a volley of shots. Then he jumped
behind a column near the building’s entrance, attempting to make himself “as
small as possible,” according to an account he gave to the Dallas Morning News.
“I just stood there and
prayed that he wouldn’t walk past me,” Fox said. “Because if he walks past me
and sees me, he’s going to shoot me. He’s already got the gun out."
Fox, who did not respond to an interview request from The
Washington Post, shot video as well, including one recorded in the harrowing
moments after the gunman retreated across the street.
The video captures Fox talking to unidentified
authorities, potentially law enforcement, who ask where the gunman went.
Fox can be heard panting. “He didn’t go past me,” he
tells them. “He was here and came this way.”
Video taken by another bystander from high above the
street shows just how close Fox was to the shooter. The gunman runs up to the
front of the federal building, at one point appearing to shoot toward the front
entrance.
The shots reverberate
down the block.
“Holy crap,” the person holding the camera says.
The entrance to the
building is framed by two bulky columns that jut out from its exterior.
Fox hides behind one,
unseen by the gunman, but just a few steps away.
The gunman then retreats, apparently
after taking fire himself. He runs to a parking lot across the street; more
shots ring out in his direction. Fox continued to take photos.
It is not clear whether the shots that damaged the
building’s front doors were fired by the shooter or law enforcement officials.
Eventually, the gunman fell to the ground.
Fox took more photos and
video of the gunman, then shirtless and injured, and the emergency responders
that surrounded him.
He told the Morning News, where he has worked for 29
years, that the most perilous situation he’d ever faced on the job was a pack
of hungry pit bulls he fended off in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. He said
he’d never been shot at. That his first move was to grab his camera was simple
reflex.
“Your journalistic
instincts just kick in,” he said. “You use the camera almost as a shield. I
also felt a journalistic duty to do all that.”
