Chicago TV news crew robbed at gunpoint while reporting on a string of robberies
CHICAGO — Members of a Chicago television news crew reporting on a string of robberies ended up being robbed themselves after they were accosted at gunpoint by three men wearing ski masks.
Spanish-language station Univision Chicago said a reporter and photographer were filming just before 5 a.m. Monday in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood when three masked men brandishing firearms robbed them, taking their television camera and other items.
“They were approached with guns and robbed. Mainly it was personal items, and they took a camera,” Luis Godinez, vice president of news at Univision Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune.
Godinez said the news crew was filming a report on robberies in the West Town community that was slated to run on the morning news. He said the video they shot was in the stolen camera, and the story never made it on the air.
Chicago police identified the victims as two men aged 28 and 42. Police said the pair was outside when the three men drove up in a gray sedan and black SUV. After the armed robbers took items from the news crew, they fled in their vehicles.
No injuries were reported and no one is in custody, police said.
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Godinez said Univision Chicago, the local TV affiliate of international media company TelevisaUnivision, is not disclosing the names of the reporter and photographer to protect their privacy.
“They’re OK, and we’re working on it together as a team,” he said.
The episode was the second robbery this month involving a Chicago news crew, after a WLS-TV photographer was assaulted and robbed Aug. 8 while preparing to cover a weekday afternoon news conference on Chicago’s West Side, the station reported.
The robberies prompted the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, to warn about the growing safety threats to those who cover the news.
“Our news photographers and reporters provide a very important public service in keeping our community informed. We are committed to making sure that their safety comes first,” Raza Siddiqui, president of the union local, said in a statement.
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