Hard News Practice

Huntington Story-

A woman living in motor home was shot by her dog. Janice Jones had a gun on a chair in her motor home and her dog knocked it off, and it shot her.

Janice Jones is 53 and lives in Barstow, CA in a motor home parked on Beach Boulevard. Highway patrol officer Tammy Rye says "Jones was eating pork chops in the back of her home." This is when the event happened.

While she was eating, her dog knocked the handgun off the chair and it fired through her right leg and through the vehicle. "It could have been worse," Rye said, "the bullet missed the gas tank by two inches."

The gun that shot Jones was a 9mm and hit the ground when it discharged. "Her dog knocked her 9 mm handgun off a seat," Rye said.

She was taken to the Huntington Beach Hospital but later was moved to Irvine Medical Center.  "Jones was shot around 10 p.m. Wednesday," Rye said.

The dog that accidentally shot her owner is a Pomeranian named Tombo, and was cared to by Huntington Beach Animal Control Officers. "The dog seemed to be malnourished," according to Janet Ngo, an animal control officer.

Earthquake Story-

San Francisco experienced a huge earthquake Monday morning. It struck at 8:12 a.m. and had 6 injuries and 2 deaths.

McHenry's Auto Supply 2342 Plum St. collapsed completely and was the reason for the six injuries and two fatalities. Jennifer Vu, a public information officer from the Hayward Fire department said "names of the dead are being withheld pending notifications of families."

A Hayward resident, Mike Beamer, lives directly across from the auto shop that collapsed. "I was eating my breakfast when the room started rolling. I dove under the table just as I heard an explosion outside and a chunk of cement flew through my kitchen window. That's when the screaming started across the street," Mike said.

While the auto shop was falling, Hayward firefighters used ropes to stabilize the building while they searched the building and found a gas leak that they then capped off. Before the building collapsed, the resident across the street felt off balance, "I felt a rolling motion that lasted for about 30 seconds," Mike said.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale. Penny Gertz, a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park called the earthquake, " a strong one," and said "it occurred on the Hayward Fault, which runs under the hills."

Many officers and helpers showed up right away, while within 4 minutes others trickled in. "Twenty-one fire personnel, 12 police and 5 American Red Cross workers responded to the building collapse," Jennifer Vu said.

Three out of six people who got hurt from the earthquake were injured enough to go to the hospital, the other three were not. "No other serious injuries have been reported in Hayward," Vu said.