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Jamie Thompson

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Books

Catch Jamie Thompson on KERA’s Think Today

She'll be talking about her new book, Standoff.
By Tim Rogers
Larry Gordon portrait
Books

The SWAT Crisis Negotiator Who Helped Blow Up a Bad Guy With a Robot

Larry Gordon played an important role on that horrible day in 2016.
By Tim Rogers
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Books

Join Jamie Thompson and Tim Rogers Monday Night for a Conversation About Her New Book

You really should read it: Standoff: Race, Policing, and a Deadly Assault That Gripped a Nation
By Tim Rogers
Media

My Favorite ‘Under Recognized’ Story of the Year

Give me Jamie Thompson for the win.
By Tim Rogers
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Latest

Local News

The Best Story You Will Read This Week

Jamie Thompson is a contributing editor to D Magazine. You might remember the Susan Hawk cover story she did for us. She has written a piece for Texas Monthly that you need to read. It's about 10,000 words long, so don't pop over and think you can knock it out in a couple minutes. Find the time to read the whole thing. "When the River Rises" is the gripping tale of the Wimberley flood last year. This is the first time Jonathan McComb has told the story about the night he went floating down the swollen Blanco River in the middle of the night, in a house. Eight people in that house with him died that night, including his wife and two children. It's hard to imagine what he went through. Jamie does a wonderful job of describing it. And there are important lessons to be learned about the lack of flood warning systems and how people build on the banks of the Blanco.
By Tim Rogers
Local News

Great Report on the Susan Hawk Hearing

Jamie Thompson wrote our November cover story about DA Susan Hawk. In that piece, Jamie broke the news that Hawk's depression had taken her to the point of considering suicide. It's one of the longest stories we've printed in many years, partly because it was important for the city to get the full picture of its district attorney's illness but also because it was filled with so much compelling detail. Jamie covered yesterday's court hearing, the one in which the effort to unseat Hawk came to an end. Jamie filed this report for the Washington Post. Once again, Jamie got some details that no other reporter saw. Give it a read.
By Tim Rogers
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Local News

Was Susan Hawk ‘Committed’ or Wasn’t She?

Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk has taken issue with one important part of the story we published online Sunday. Here's the way Jamie Thompson reported the details of the most intense period of Hawk's treatment for depression:
[Hawk] says she began thinking of ways to kill herself. She studied the blow-dryer in her room. Was the cord long enough to strangle herself? What about the strap on her purse? That night she told a nurse, “I’m going to kill myself anyway. Just let me go home.” But once she uttered those words, she no longer could leave the facility voluntarily. Hawk was officially committed. She was placed under one-on-one supervision, a nurse following her at every moment, to every class, to every meal. At night, a nurse sat beside her bed, watching her sleep.
Hawk now says that's not what happened. Here's the way ABC Channel 8 put it:
Hawk … issued a statement, disputing the notion that she was ever in the facility involuntarily during the nine weeks she was there. “I was there voluntarily the entire time,” the statement said. “To say that I was there involuntarily at any point is factually wrong.”
First, I'd like to emphasize that what we reported is what Hawk told us. And in our fact-checking process, Jamie read that passage back to Hawk to make sure it was accurate. Hawk didn't object at the time. Here's some more context to understand what happened when Hawk was in treatment and how she described it to Jamie. To provide more details, Jamie went back to her notes from a 10-hour interview she conducted with Hawk.
By Tim Rogers
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Local News

Why We Devoted 10,000 Words to DPD’s Child Abuse Squad

Jamie Thompson's three years with Dallas' Child Abuse Squad.
By Cristina Daglas
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