NBC News Crew Mugged, Assaulted And Robbed In San Francisco


A news crew from NBC affiliate KTVU was mugged and robbed in San Francisco while covering a nearby shooting early Thursday morning, the station is reporting.

Several San Francisco-area news crews were on the scene of a Wednesday night shooting at San Francisco’s famed Embarcadero early Thursday morning, including KTVU. Cameraman Alan Waples was setting up the shot, while reporter Cara Liu was preparing to deliver her report. Back at the station, anchor Brian Flores was reporting, and the station cut to Liu for her report.

However, a visibly-disturbed Liu was looking off-camera. She told Flores “Hold on. Wait.”

Off-camera, a masked assailant had pistol-whipped Waples, and stole his camera.

SF Gate provides further details of what happened to the news crew. At about 6:03 a.m., as the various news crews were setting up their reports — including a crew from San Francisco station KNTV — the assailant pulled up to the scene in a black BMW. He then approached Waples and put a gun to his head. KNTV reporter Kris Sanchez, who was nearby, screamed at the mugger not to shoot.

Waples said he told the mugger to take the camera; he feared he would hear the click of the gun. Sanchez said he feared for his colleague’s life.

“I thought he was going to kill Alan.”

Meanwhile, KTVU was broadcasting their morning news, and awaited Liu’s report.

“Sorry, there’s an incident out here.”

Flores addressed the viewers while the mugging was playing out.

“Okay, looks like there’s some type of incident going on with Cara Liu out there, not exactly sure what is going on…. Let’s try to get more information on what’s going on with Cara. Hopefully, she’s doing okay, first off.”

Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the mugging, although Sanchez did suffer a gash on his ear and a bruise on his arm, injuries he suffered when the gunman threw him to the ground.

News crews from KRON and KGO were also at the scene, but none of their employees were involved in the mugging.

California news crews — particularly in Oakland — have increasingly found themselves at risk of assault from passerby during news reports, says SF Gate. In fact, just last summer, Cara Liu was hit in the head by a woman while she (Liu) was delivering a report. News crews have taken to hiring private security teams to protect them while on-scene.

As of this post, police have not made any arrests in the San Francisco news crew mugging incident.

[Image courtesy of: Shutterstock/Francesco Carucci]

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