Journalists covering US George Floyd protests find themselves under attack
- There have been reports of several journalists being seriously injured in the growing unrest across the US following the death of an unarmed black man
Journalists covering nationwide protests over the death of a black man at police hands in Minneapolis have found themselves under attack, by police and at times by protesters.
The arrest and handcuffing Friday of a black CNN journalist by police in Minneapolis – even as he was reporting live on camera following the death of George Floyd – may have drawn the widest coverage.
The journalist, Omar Jimenez, was released an hour later after the Minnesota governor personally intervened.
But there have been several other serious incidents across the country, notably in Louisville, Kentucky, where a riot-squad policeman fired what appeared to be pepper spray pellets at a local TV crew filming the scene.
“I’m getting shot!” Kaitlin Rust, a reporter with local TV channel WAVE-3, cried out on camera.
And in Minneapolis, freelance journalist Linda Tirado was struck in the left eye by a rubber bullet fired by police, and said later on Twitter that she had permanently lost vision in that eye.