Homework

Using AP style and the lessons we have learned thus far, write a 250-300 word news story for tomorrow morning’s Washington Post based on the following facts: Richard Cabot was 32 years old, and lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A guy with an unassailable optimism, he played the lottery each week without fail. In the past year, he had also split the purchase of lottery tickets with his co-workers. When they won, the winnings were split evenly among them. He had shared his portion of previous winnings with his family. He had recently bought his first home – in Oakland, near Carnegie Mellon University — and was hoping to use lottery winnings to help pay its mortgage. His friends and family describe him as happy-go-lucky. His favorite movie was “Airplane” and he loved football. A longtime Pittsburgh Steelers fan, Cabot loved his job as a barista at a local Starbucks and often hummed the Steelers fight song while making lattes and frappachinos for customers. On Sept. 24, he and some friends met at a sports bar near his home to watch a baseball game on television. During the game, some other patrons got a little rowdy, and a fight ensued which spilled outside. Witnesses say Cabot tried to stop the fight and, at one point, used a pistol he brought along to scare the instigators of the fight. According to police, Cabot shot his pistol at the car of the instigators of the fight, which was speeding away. Police on the scene shot Cabot once, killing him. Officer Debra Brown, who has been with the Pittsburgh Police Department’s public affairs office for seven years, alleges that Cabot was hiding behind a car and shooting at the arriving cops. Cabot’s relatives claim he only shot his pistol once, and up into the air to scare the instigators into stopping the fight. They also claim the police didn’t warn him before shooting him. The officer who fired at Cabot was immediately placed on paid administrative leave. This is a procedure done after any shooting to allow investigators time to confirm the correctness of the officer’s actions, and will be followed by an internal police review and a court inquest. The pistol was a .357 caliber short-barrel. Cabot had appropriate licensing for it. Later that night, lottery officials revealed that Cabot was among a group of 13 Starbucks employees who won an $87 million lottery jackpot and that the announcement was made after the game, less than an hour after he was shot. After taxes, lottery officials estimated his portion of the winnings to have amounted to $1.9 million.