TALLAHASSE, Fla. (WFLA) — The call came out, a mass shooting at Florida State University. In the first moments of the news alert, the details were not clear. In events like this, the details often change. The reports of the numbers killed and or wounded will often increase or decrease as more credible information comes in from the scene.

I’ve seen it before. In 2014, a similar call came out from Florida State University. Myron May, a graduate student shot three people outside of the library.

Then in 2018, Nickolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He killed 17 people and wounded more. I remember arriving on scene outside of the high school, just as other news crews were showing up. There were police roadblocks, some students from the high school came to see what the news coverage would be like. People were crying, many stood around in shock, some told us the horror of what they had seen.

In 2016, I was sent to Orlando, not long after yet another mass shooting. Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at the Pulse Night Club.

Again, I arrived as other news crews were just showing up. Roadblocks were put up by the Orlando Police and a media “staging area” was established. Police need to do their work; they need to process crime scenes and maintain control of the curious and the grieving who may want to get closer than they should to an active investigation. They also need to make sure the large number of media who arrive at mass shootings don’t interfere with their ability to do their jobs and so the “media staging area” allows the media to be reasonably close to a situation and it also allows law enforcement to give the media as quickly as possible at specified locations.

In each case, people who witnessed the tragedy, or who had friends who were involved, come to the scene. As a reporter, you want to hear their story, to gather facts as best you can and to cover what law enforcement officials reveal about each situation.

As a human, you would have to be a brick wall not to feel empathy for the tragedy they are telling you about.

In each mass shooting, there are some people who will want to share their individual stories. For some, it’s therapeutic to talk about the events, to talk about the people who were killed or wounded and to share their stories, so they are not forgotten. For others, it’s offensive to be approached by the intrusive media and their never-ending questions.

As a person, you have to be aware that different people handle stress and tragedy in different ways. Some want to talk, some don’t, and you have to respect each individual’s decision.

You would also have to be a brick wall not to feel the impact of that, to not carry some of it with you when you walk away. I’ve spoken to some experts over the years about the cumulative impact of covering each tragedy during the course of a career and at the end of each event, you just have to deal with it the best you can.

I’m a father, and this week most of the students I came across at the FSU campus were younger than my children. One of my daughters reached out to me, knowing I would be thinking of them when I saw the tears in the eyes of the students I interviewed.

As a reporter it’s always been my goal to tell each story in a fair and honest way. Not to embellish or over dramatize the facts, and certainly to be respectful for the pain being felt and the loss of life.

It’s not easy, you hope each mass shooting will be the last you cover. However, each time you know in the back of your heart, there will probably be another because there are no easy answers to stop them, no quick fix for the far-ranging set of problems that sparks each tragic event.