A law enforcement official was caught on camera firing non-lethal projectiles Friday evening at a local TV news crew reporting from the scene of a protest in Louisville, Kentucky.
WAVE-TV was broadcasting live from downtown Louisville when reporter Kaitlin Rust announced on-air that she was being shot at with what she initially believed to be rubber bullets.
A cameraman for the station subsequently captured a uniformed law enforcement official firing off several more rounds squarely in the direction of the local news team.
Ken Selvaggi, WAVE’s general manager, said both Ms. Rust and the cameraman were hit with what the Louisville Metro Police said were likely non-lethal “pepper balls.”
“We strongly condemn the actions of the LMPD officer who tonight repeatedly fired at and hit our reporter and cameraman, both of whom were courageously and lawfully covering breaking news in their community,” Mr. Selvaggi said in a statement late Friday evening. “There is simply no justification for the Louisville police to wantonly open fire, even with pepper balls, on any journalists under any circumstances.”
Jessie Halladay, a special adviser for LMPD, apologized after seeing footage of the incident and said it would be under review, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
“It’s not something that should have occurred if she was singled out as a reporter, and that is what the video looks like occurred,” said Ms. Halladay, the newspaper reported. “We will be taking a look at the video again after this situation is resolved, and if we need to do any investigation for discipline, we will do that.”
Ms. Halladay said authorities could not immediately determine if the law enforcement official was an LMPD officer, adding that he may be a member of its special response team, CNN reported.
WAVE was reporting from downtown Louisville while covering protests held over the death of a Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot and killed inside her home by an LMPD officer in March.
The crew came under fire hours after a CNN reporter was arrested live on-air while covering protests held in Minnesota over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Monday in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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