TV news crews robbed, pistol whipped covering SF pier shooting
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two TV news crews were robbed at gunpoint Thursday morning in the same spot where a woman was shot and killed a day earlier, reports CBS San Francisco.
KTVU and KNTV were covering the story of the shooting death of a 31-year-old woman at Pier 14 when robbers threw a KNTV cameraman to the ground and pistol-whipped him during a live broadcast by competitor KTVU at about 6 a.m.
One reporter was live on air when she apparently fled an assailant.
No shots were fired, but an ammo magazine from a gun was reportedly left behind. No other injuries were reported.
The robber drove away in a black BMW 7-series with two cameras and two tripods from the stations. The losses are estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Neither of the news crews hit by the armed robber Thursday morning were accompanied by security guards, but many local crews have used security guards while covering stories in Oakland in response to similar robberies in recent years. The practice has been less frequent in news in San Francisco, where such crimes have not been as frequent.