A Chicago TV news crew reporting on a string of robberies in the city’s West Town neighborhood became the story themselves when they were robbed at gunpoint early Monday.
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.
“They’re OK, and we’re working on it together as a team,” Godinez said.
The news crew was taping a story about robberies in the West Town neighborhood 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.
Godinez said the station took a different approach with a general story about the recent robberies that aired on the 5 p.m. newscast. The incident involving its own news crew was mentioned, but the station doesn’t want to make it a focal point of its coverage.
“We don’t want to make the story about us, because there were other robberies that occurred within that same period,” he said.
The robbery was the second to hit a Chicago TV news crew this month.
On Aug. 8, a WLS-TV 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.
“Our news photographers and reporters provide a very important public service in keeping our community informed,” Siddiqui said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to making sure that their safety comes first. We have talked to the photographer who was robbed today, and he is thankfully safe and in good spirits.”
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