A producer and film crew from "America's Most Wanted," which airs locally on Fox40, is in town this week to cover the shooting death of Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Jeffrey Mitchell.
Fred Peabody, the producer, says a short segment will air this Saturday at 9 p.m. on the show's "Fallen Officer" segment. There is a chance, he adds, that a full segment about the search for Mitchell's killer will air on Nov. 11.
"We can't get it on the air as quickly as TV news crews because of (production schedules)," Peabody says. "But there is a lot of interest in this case and we want to help out."
Unlike a news organization, "AMW" is not bound by reportorial objectivity. Its primary purpose, Peabody says, is to help catch bad guys.
"When an officer is killed in the line of duty, we consider that a high priority for us," Peabody says. "Even though this case has received a lot of attention locally, it raises the profile (of the case) by having a national program like ours reporting on it.
"We've found in the past that being on 'America's Most Wanted' raises the psychological pressure on the shooter. This guy realizes there's nowhere in America he can go now without being recognized."
Among the cases that "AMW" has helped solve: Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and the apprehension of accused pedophile Eric Rosser in Thailand, Peabody says.
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