Great storytelling, great radio. Makes you think and feel. It's funny and sad. I like Gwen's presence and style, her matter of fact tone and insightful writing.
One of the best things about the piece is how it begins. I was not sure where it was going but I was happy to be on the ride. And then the piece turns. It's a great surprise, and the set-up makes sense and the subject matter becomes more "meaningful." Gwen takes us on a journey (love the stuff about how she could not get editors interested). She starts with herself, single voice, memories of childhood, and it becomes an investigation/ documentary full of other voices, probing questions.
I have two constructive pieces of critique. If I was editing this piece, I would have pushed hard to cut down on the middle/ end segments about the police. The story makes a very distinct shift when the tape of the TV news story is played in its entirety. That tape was too long, and did not add anything to my understanding of the story. And from there the story gets side tracked, to my ears. Not that the hard questions for the police are not really important ones, but I didn't think all the time spent on that was really part of THIS story. I think the time spent on challenging the accounts of the shooting got me off track a bit, took me away from the story/ journey that the producer was on.
Also, music at the end is too dramatic. I had to turn it off. The music made much too strong a comment. The story didn't need that drama to conclude.
Overall though, great, great work and I loved listening.