Two 19-year old men have been charged with robbery, weapons and conspiracy offenses after a San Francisco television reporter was robbed of his equipment Friday. A security guard accompanying the reporter fired shots upon the men during the confrontation.
From Reuters:
Two teenagers have been arrested after a San Francisco television reporter was robbed and his security guard opened fire on the suspects, in the latest of a number of robberies targeting local television news crews and photojournalists.KRON 4 reporter Jeff Bush and the security guard were working on a story on Friday in San Francisco’s Bayview district, a high-crime area, when two armed men demanded Bush’s equipment, the station said in a story on its website.Bush “immediately surrendered the equipment and took cover,” the station said in the post. The security guard accompanying him fired shots, hitting one of the gunmen, the station reported.Neither Bush nor the security guard was wounded, KRON 4 said.
The arrests come after a series of similar incidents in the area targeting journalists and news crews, which has in part prompted many news outlets to send security personnel with reporters as they cover stories in some areas, according to CBS News.
In August, a KGO-TV news crew, accompanied by a security guard, was robbed of its camera equipment at gunpoint in West Oakland.
Media personnel in the area have also occasionally found themselves targets of another sort in the midst of covering protests as well.
In July, members of various news crews were attacked during protests against the Zimmerman verdict in and around Oakland on several occasions.
And in November 2011, Occupy Oakland protesters turned on a KGO-TV cameraman as he tried to cover the scene of a shooting near the encampment, leaving him with a mild concussion. The incident prompted the Oakland Police Department to release a statement warning journalists of potential risks to their safety.
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