LA Helicopter Reporter Comes Out as Transgender

By Merrill Knox 

Bob Tur, a Los Angeles helicopter reporter who covered the LA race riots and the O.J. Simpson chase, has come out as transgender.

Tur is the creator of Los Angeles News Service, which was the first news service to use a helicopter in a major city for coverage of live breaking news. She was the only reporter to capture footage of the attack on Reginald Denny during the L.A. race riots in 1992 and the first to locate and televise the O.J. Simpson freeway chase in 1994.

In an interview with KCBS, one of her former stations, Tur said she is undergoing hormone replacement therapy to fully transform from male to female. She will change her name from Robert to Zoey.

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“People thought I was brave doing rescues, they thought I was brave doing news, flying helicopters,” Tur said. “Brave is being yourself. That’s brave. And for the first time in my life, I’m being brave.”

Tur’s daughter, Katy Tur, is a correspondent for NBC News in New York. Tur told KNX radio that his kids “were in a state of shock.”

“They have been going through this mourning process. Bob Tur has got to die,” she said. “And that’s going to happen within the next three or four months. There’s a mourning process, but they’ve been very, very supportive.”

Watch Tur’s interview with KCBS after the jump.

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