Milwaukee CBS affiliate WDJT says one of its two-person crews was attacked while covering the BP Gas station fire during the weekend violence sparked by a Milwaukee police officer involved shooting.
“Cameras and our satellite backpacks that allow us to go live were stolen when a crowd of a dozen people physically attacked our team,” reports WDJT. “One of them had to be taken to the hospital for evaluation, but was released early this morning.”
A station spokesperson referred TVSpy to the station’s report when we asked for comment.
Violence erupted Saturday night after the shooting death of Sylville Smith, an armed African-American man, by a black police officer. Local stations went live with the riots after their late newscasts.
Sunday night WDJT reporter Amanda Porterfield told viewers at 11:54 p.m., “someone even stopped our car when they saw us shooting through the window inside our car because we did not want to get out of our car. They saw our car. They saw our camera and they started knocking on the window and cursing at us, and telling us to get out of their neighborhood.”
Amanda DeVoe had the same story. Earlier that evening, she told anchors back in the studio she and her photographer Cole were yelled and cursed at on scene. She also said Cole was threatened by the crowd while he was shooting video, prompting the two to leave the area.