About Dave Statter

dstatter@wusa9.com

202 895 5581

Dave Statter joined 9NEWS NOW (WUSA-TV) in Washington, DC as a general assignment reporter in August 1985. Since May of 2007 he has also edited the website STATter911.com. STATter 911 focuses on fire and EMS issues worldwide, with special attention to news and videos Dave generates from the Metropolitan Washington area.

Besides a career in broadcasting that began in 1972, Dave was a volunteer firefighter in Oxon Hill, MD from 1974 to 1980. Dave also worked as a dispatcher for the Prince George’s County, MD Fire Department from 1976 to 1979. In 1977 Dave was in the first group of Cardiac Rescue Technicians certified in Prince George’s County.

Dave, along with his wife Hillary Howard, an anchor at all-news WTOP Radio, annually host the satellite uplink from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, MD. In 2007, STATter 911, in partnership with Firehouse.com, provided the first-ever live streaming of the events, allowing the important ceremonies to be seen around the world.

In his broadcast career, before coming to 9NEWS NOW, Dave worked at WTOP Radio where he was a news and traffic reporter. Prior to that he worked at a number of radio stations in Southern Maryland and in his home town of Baltimore.

In 1997, Dave was the first in the mainstream press to discover and report on the problems with “Omega” fire sprinklers. “Omega” sprinklers were eventually recalled by the CPSC.

The stories he is most proud of came under the banner “Get Out Alive”. From 1995 to 2001, 9NEWS NOW did a series of reports and a half-hour special teaching people what to do in case of a fire in a single family home, a high-rise building, and a garden-style apartment. Those reports and the special have been shown to the public at fire prevention seminars around the country. Thousands of brochures have been handed out by firefighters throughout the region. 9NEWS Now still gets requests for the brochures and tapes.

In 1993, Dave was named “Best Crime Reporter” by Washingtonian magazine. His still pictures of the arrest of James Edward Swann, the 1993 “Mount Pleasant Stalker,” were used by 9NEWS NOW and on the front pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Times and in papers around the country.

In 1991 Dave won an Emmy for Spot News Coverage of the Mount Pleasant Riot. Dave, with the late photographer Sheldon Levy, received a Gold Medal in the International Film and TV Festival of New York for his coverage of the dramatic rescue of a family from its burning Northeast Washington home in 1989.

In 1988, he and 9NEWS NOW photographer Mike Flynn taped a DC ambulance searching for a location for 30 minutes. This coverage led The Washington Post to write a series of editorials on the subject, along with a greater examination of the local ambulance system.

In 1986, along with former 9NEWS NOW reporters Mike Buchanan and James Brown, Dave broke the tragic Len Bias story, receiving a 1987 United Press International Broadcast Journalism Award and a Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters’ Association Award.

Dave’s coverage of the 1987 Amtrak derailment, which prompted drug testing of all future Amtrak employees, won a local Emmy and a 1988 Chesapeake AP Broadcasters’ Association Award. In 1989, Statter covered two nights of rioting in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Dave has extensive experience in hurricane coverage including reporting from Charleston, SC as hurricane Hugo made its direct hit on the city. In his spare time Dave also has spent many hours storm chasing in the Midwest and Great Plains.

His first live reporting assignment for WTOP Radio was covering the 1982 Air Florida disaster.

Dave and Hillary live in Falls Church, Virginia with their son Sam.