Police have arrested a 51-year-old man for shooting WKOW photojournalist Matthew Anderson with a pellet gun while Anderson was shooting a story about a local house fire.
Jeffery Lovick has been released from jail after paying $500 bail. Lovick told Sheriff’s deputies he shot at the Madison, Wisconsin ABC affiliate’s crew because they were too close to his property.
“He gave no warning what so ever, he didn’t come out and say ‘hey get out of here’ or ‘get off our land’, nothing,” said Anderson, who sustained minor injuries.
“WKOW takes this incident very seriously. We will work closely with the District Attorney’s Office as they prosecute this case,” said WKOW vp and GM Tom Allen, “Our employee had every right to be on the scene covering this story and should not have been targeted simply for doing his job.”
WKOW says a reporter for rival station WMTV was nearby when Anderson was shot.
“We may compete against each other but both stations have the same goal – to serve our community,” WMTV news director Russell Bruhn told WKOW. “Both the WKOW photographer and the WMTV reporter were simply doing their jobs legally.”