A Chicago TV news crew reporting on a string of robberies in the city’s West Town community became the story themselves when they were robbed at gunpoint early Monday.
The Chicago Tribune reports a reporter and photographer for Spanish-language TV station Univision Chicago were filming just before 5 a.m. in the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue when three men wearing ski masks and brandishing firearms robbed them at gunpoint, according to the station.
“They were approached with guns and robbed,” said Luis Godinez, vice president of news at Univision Chicago. “Mainly it was personal items, and they took a camera.”
The Chicago police identified the victims as a 28-year-old male and 42-year-old male. They were outside when the three men drove up in a gray sedan and black SUV. After taking the items, the armed robbers fled southbound in their vehicles. No injuries were reported and no one is in custody, the police 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, Godinez said.
“The news crew was taping a story about robberies in the West Town community that was slated to run on the morning news. The footage they shot was in the stolen TV camera, and the story never made it on the air, Godinez said.
The robbery was the second to hit a Chicago TV news crew this month. On Aug. 8, a WLS-Ch.7 photographer was assaulted and robbed while preparing to cover a weekday afternoon news conference on the West Side, the station reported.
Raza Siddiqui, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, is sounding the alarm on the growing threats to the safety of those who cover the news.
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