Outside The Lines producer reflects on emotional challenges of telling story of couple’s tragic deaths

Producer Michael Sciallo says Sunday’s Outside the Lines piece (9 a.m. ET, ESPN) on the shooting deaths of Keith Lawrence and his fiancée Monica Quan — the first victims of a February killing spree attributed to a disgruntled ex-Los Angeles police officer — is the toughest he’s ever done.

“This is a very sad story,” said Sciallo, who has worked for OTL nearly eight years. “It wasn’t the toughest to shoot or to write — it was the toughest emotionally.”

Sciallo teamed with reporter Steve Delsohn for the assignment. Preliminary research led him to the Facebook site of “The Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence Girls Basketball Scholarship Fund” created to continue the couple’s legacy and their love of basketball. They met while each played at Concordia University in Irvine, Cal., with Monica becoming assistant coach there before serving as an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton. Lawrence was a public safety officer at USC.

“On their Facebook page was a 13-minute video tribute, which included some elements I wanted to use in our feature,” Sciallo said. “That’s what makes our piece so special: Monica’s brother, Ryan, has his own video production company — so when he agreed to give us his raw footage, we had great quality video and unbelievable ‘access’ to Monica and Keith.”

But, by far, the toughest part of the assignment was interviewing surviving family and friends.

“It’s less than two months after a real-life tragedy and you’re going into a person’s house and — you don’t want to overstep your bounds, but you have to do your job,” Sciallo said. “I’ve worked with Steve before. Most our stories are usually investigative, hard-core journalism, but this was totally different. He let the emotions play out.

“Keith’s dad spoke from the heart when he talked about his son,” said Sciallo, a Long Island, N.Y., native and St. John’s grad. “I just tried to be professional, but it was heartbreaking. You can definitely sense their close relationship. Both Steve and I left the interview knowing we had a really powerful story. And Monica’s friend broke down several times during her interview. It was tough to keep your composure.”

Sciallo said he is curious what the reaction to Sunday’s piece will be.

“This is a very sad, nine-minute story,” he said. “We’ve got some good light-hearted stuff about them, but in the end it is a sad story — one that is very difficult to tell. But Monica and Keith’s friends and families are determined to carry on their legacy. And that’s why I think they found some comfort in sharing the couple’s story.”