Following on the heels of last Sunday’s fatal shooting of a Skid Row man, on Wednesday, KTTV sent a crew to document what it was like to live there, only to have someone attack the cameraman while he was filming, according to Deadline.
The man allegedly seized the camera and broke it, prompting the cameraman to call 911, which triggered the arrival of police.
The crew was set up near the Midnight Mission on 6th Street, close to the scene of the Sunday incident. Deadline reports:
“A local Fox TV affiliate was shooting B-roll at about 12:07 PM at 6th and San Pedro when a guy on the street approached the cameraman and tried to grab the camera,” LAPD media relations officer Jack Richter told Deadline. “The camera was broken, and the cameraman and suspect started to fight. Police were called. Two officers showed up, and the officers started to fight with the suspect. The suspect went for the officer’s gun and began fighting with the officers. Three officers were injured and treated at the scene. The suspect is in custody. The news crew was shaken but unhurt.
Phil Shuman reported on KTTV’s website that his crew was attempting to show “the reality of day-to-day struggles on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.” He said, “In the aftermath of Sunday’s fatal shooting of a homeless man by the LAPD during a robbery call, I wanted to try to give our viewers a sense of the challenges that everyone, especially the police, deal with every day in that area.”
Shuman asserted that once police arrived, they tackled the suspect and used a “contact” taser to stop him from further action. He concluded that what transpired was a “vivid example of the volatile nature of some people here and how quickly the routine can turn dangerous.”