TV News Crews Robbed of Cameras During Live Broadcasts

An armed robber stole camera equipment from the KNTV and KTVU crews around 6 a.m. KNTV cameraman Alan Waples was struck on the side of the head with the gun, leaving him bloodied and bruised, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The San Francisco Police Department didn’t immediately respond to HuffPost’s inquiries, but said in an earlier statement that police had detained a “person of interest” in Wednesday’s fatal shooting.

KNTV reported in a story on its website that one of its photographers suffered a cut to his ear during the altercation and that the suspects fled the scene in a black BMW possibly being driven by an accomplice.

Television and newspaper crews have been robbed in the San Francisco Bay Area several times in recent years. The news crews were among several stations covering the deadly shooting of a woman at Pier 14. The suspect then grabbed the photographer’s camera gear, and as he was struggling to get it inside his getaway auto, returned to pistol whip the photographer again, the news crew reported.

KTVU reporter Cara Liu was reporting live Thursday morning from Pier 14 when she abruptly told anchor Brian Flores something had happened.

Part of the robbery was captured on air, showing a man hitting KNTV-TV camera operator Alan Waples with a gun.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot”, viewers heard KNTV reporter Kris Sanchez yell at the gunman.

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