(MOBILE, Ala.) - At a special viewing Thursday afternoon, a select few journalists saw the events leading up to the death of Univserity of South Alabama student Gil Collar at the hands, authorities said, of a campus police officer.
At least three of those journalists were Coller's student peers.
"I will say this right now, it's not what I expected," said The Vanguard Editor in Chief Cassie Fambro.
Fambro said this is the biggest story she's covered in her two years as the editor of the campus newspaper, and this week has been anything but ordinary for the student newsroom.
"We've been fielding calls," Fambro said. "We've had CNN, Huffington Post, everywhere from WLOX on the coast in Mississippi, every news station here has talked to us."
Fambro says reporters are wanting to see the tragedy through the eyes of the student.
"A lot of them start off with, 'We know you are the voice of the students'- it's actually one of our slogans-and ask us if we feel safe on campus, and what our view is having the experience working for the newspaper," Fambro said.
Online, and in stands across campus, Fambro said the college publication may have seen it's peak of readership this week with students hungry for information, and eager to sound off on the hot-button issue.
"It's something that I haven't seen before at this school is that everyone has an opinion, and everyone's letting everyone know about it," The Vanguard Sports Writer J.T. Crabtree said. "It's a completely different experience for me."
"I feel like this is a very unfortunate situation, but it does give us a real life look into a big issue, and a big story," Fambro said.
