I’m happy to announce that the above image won a first place in the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers’ Association’s 37th annual News Photography Competition.

The photo came from the scene of a fatal shooting. In this case, the death was a six-year-old who was killed by an errant bullet while he was standing in the kitchen of his apartment, the unintended victim of a drive by shooting. I don’t know the name of the young man in this picture, but to me the photo says a lot about the crime situation in Salinas: A person is killed, the police round up young suspects to try to get information, no one talks.

This photo was not among those that we published in the next day’s paper. Other pictures — police making arrests, the ambulance — were chosen to tell the story.

But sometimes a photo like this, which don’t tell the specific story of the day, tells a greater story about the community.

It’s not easy to win in the SFBAPPA contest. The quality of work in the Bay Area is extremely high, and we’re competing against photographers from the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, and dozens of other papers who photo staffs are stocked with talented shooters. The San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers’ Association is a great organization, and I’m honored to be a member and a winner this year.