It all started very early in the morning. Our photographer Alan Reed, was called to the scene of one of those events we just hate to cover.

3-year-old Alex Hubbard was killed, after the autistic and deaf toddler wandered away from his home in his pajamas late Wednesday. He was walking on busy Southeast 240th St. in Maple Valley. One driver pulled over to try and bring him to a safe spot. Another driver did not, and police say, struck the boy, killing him, and then drove away.

Alan stayed for several hours, and ended up interviewing Alex's grandmother, who as you can imagine, was emotional over the loss of her loved one. It's the kind of interview which gives me the motivation to find some answers for the family.

Her interview apparently prompted viewers to react. After we aired it repeatedly through the morning, I received a call from our assignment editor, Elizabeth Berman.

"I just got a call from a guy who says his daughter knows the hit and run driver," she said.

Our photographer Bill Skok and I then set off on a mission to try and find the clues to solve the case. We cruised a long stretch of the road between 272nd and Kent Kangley Road, in the Covington area. We weren't finding much, until I noticed a King County Sheriff's SUV driving down the street. Like a cop in a old fifties TV show, I said to Bill, "Follow that car!"

Bill did a U-turn and we followed the SUV into a parking lot, where he stopped next to two other similar marked vehicles. Bill asked me whether to shoot it, and I said, "Let's wait to see what happens next." There was a dark four-door sedan which matched the description of the suspect car parked nearby. The detectives, who had been up all night trying to solve the case, all looked at the front of the car. Bingo!

We had the car. It had a broken headlight, and dent on the hood just above the headlight. It was a major development, and would lead us to a suspect.
But we had a problem. Our noon news broadcast was pre-empted by the US Open. So how do we get the information out? We also don't have any way to feed the video back to the station.

We debated the issue. I called in for a conference call with the editors. That's when KING5.comsenior producer Jan Minagawa said, "What about taking some pictures with your cell phone?" I did, and emailed them back. Jan, KING5.com colleague Lisa Javier and I all worked on a story to publish online. We waited for official word of the arrest, and broke the news on our website. (Yes, that's the photo I took from the scene.) I phoned in a report to our colleagues at Northwest Cable News shortly thereafter.

The news spread quickly. Within minutes, my colleagues, Reporter Tricia Manning-Smith and Photographer Pete Cassam were there. Tricia and Pete spoke with the Alex's parents, and aired their comments on our 5 p.m. newscast. It is gripping, and heartbreaking television. You can only imagine what they have and will be going through.

I'll remember this day, and feel proud of our efforts. Hopefully it prompted the neighboorhood to react, and potentially solve the case for a family that needed answers.