It’s not easy being a citizen journalist in Detroit.
Just ask Marc D., a DJ and owner of 7Mile Radio.
Fed up with crime, Marc D. has taken to the streets to document police activity in areas often ignored by the media. On Sunday night, as he often does when he hears about a nearby crime, the 32-year-old ventured outside his home near 7 Mile and Van Dyke to capture the action.
“I saw about 15 police cars,” Marc D. told me. “I tried to get closer to the scene to see what happened.”
Using his cell phone video camera, Marc D. captured fresh footage of what turned out to be a deadly drive-by shooting. A body was still in the car as investigators combed the scene.
It wasn’t until he got home that Marc D. learned that the victim in the car was a friend he’d known since elementary school.
“I had no idea it was him,” he said of the victim, Michael Dotsey.
On Jan. 29, Marc D. photographed a gruesome car accident on Gratiot. One of the cars had been sheared in half.
Marc D. reported what he knew on social media and then learned the sad news.
“My friend Sierra was coming home from her birthday celebration and was coming up Gratiot, and a car that was speeding split her car in two,” Marc D. said.
She died.
In Detroit, death is hard to escape. Especially if you seek it out to provide your community with information.
“With social media and with so many people leaving Detroit, you or someone you know is somehow connected to the victim of a crime,” Marc D. said. “The population is so small now.”
Because he lives in the community, Marc D. often hears about people involved in crimes and is able to disseminate the news to people most impacted by it.
Marc D. also operates 7Mile Radio from the basement of his home. He plans to relocate to a bigger studio and open a media center for kids.
Fighting crime with news: Citizen journalist can’t avoid death in Detroit added by Steve Neavling on
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Steve Neavling
Steve Neavling lives and works in Detroit as an investigative journalist. His stories have uncovered corruption, led to arrests and reforms and prompted FBI investigations.
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