Security Guard murdered in Oakland protecting TV crew

[JimMIA]

For months, there have been mobs of thieves rushing into stores in major cities and stealing whatever they could grab. These large-scale thefts are apparently becoming an urban holiday shopping season tradition.

In Oakland Wednesday, there was one of these flash-mob lootings at a clothing store. While a KRON-TV film crew was trying to film the story, someone attempted to steal their camera equipment and their security guard tried to intervene. He was shot, underwent surgery and died this morning.

He leaves a wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area...-from-injuries-after-attempted-armed-robbery/

 

[JimMIA]

FWIW, I've never heard of TV crews having security guards, but apparently it's been common practice for a long time in the Bay Area.

 

[ronandannette]

For months, there have been mobs of thieves rushing into stores in major cities and stealing whatever they could grab. These large-scale thefts are apparently becoming an urban holiday shopping season tradition.

In Oakland Wednesday, there was one of these flash-mob lootings at a clothing store. While a KRON-TV film crew was trying to film the story, someone attempted to steal their camera equipment and their security guard tried to intervene. He was shot, underwent surgery and died this morning.

He leaves a wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area...-from-injuries-after-attempted-armed-robbery/

https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto-legal-california
Has it really evolved into total lawlessness now? It's mind-blowing. Nice law (or lack thereof). If you're pilfering as part of a mob, the $950 per worthless sack of garbage thief could net quite a tidy haul. Understandable that they got confused and thought they could rob bystanders with the same degree of impunity.

 

[tvguy]

FWIW, I've never heard of TV crews having security guards, but apparently it's been common practice for a long time in the Bay Area.

Common in Sacramento after the George Floyd protests started. To be honest, other thugs took advantage of those protests to loot and assault people including news crews. The actual George Floyd protesters were not the problem. With the station I just retired from, each crew went out with two guards. Find it odd that the KRON crew just had one guard.
I got in the business in 1975, and apparently prior to that it was not uncommon for news photographers and reporters to be armed.

 

[JimMIA]

Common in Sacramento after the George Floyd protests started. To be honest, other thugs took advantage of those protests to loot and assault people including news crews. The actual George Floyd protesters were not the problem. With the station I just retired from, each crew went out with two guards. Find it odd that the KRON crew just had one guard.

WOW. I've been around news crews a lot over the years and I don't think I've every seen a news crew with any kind of security.

 

[tvguy]

WOW. I've been around news crews a lot over the years and I don't think I've every seen a news crew with any kind of security.

In 1980 I went on the overnight shift in a TV newsroom. Mind you, I was in the building, not out in the field. I was given the option of carrying a gun at work. Station even offered to secure a Concealed Weapons Permit and buy the gun. I declined. Until a few years earlier, there were two radio stations in the building. TV stations routinely signed off the air at like 1 am, radio stayed on the air 24 hours. A friend worked on the radio side on the overnight shift, and at that time it was a requirement to carry a weapon. There was a lot of concern in those days that some evil person or group would gain control of the station, and the transmitter. It wasn't an issue of employee safety, it was an issue of keeping control of the station. I was on duty when someone opened fire on the station from a block away. My wife was on duty at the same station years earlier when a guy with a shotgun got into the building and got into the newsroom. Fortunately, that ended safely.

 

[low-key]

For months, there have been mobs of thieves rushing into stores in major cities and stealing whatever they could grab. These large-scale thefts are apparently becoming an urban holiday shopping season tradition.

In Oakland Wednesday, there was one of these flash-mob lootings at a clothing store. While a KRON-TV film crew was trying to film the story, someone attempted to steal their camera equipment and their security guard tried to intervene. He was shot, underwent surgery and died this morning.

He leaves a wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area...-from-injuries-after-attempted-armed-robbery/

but it was a peaceful demonstration

 

[Jennasis]

I was attacked more than once back in the day when I worked in the biz (have had things thrown at me, been verbally attacked and on one memorable occasion had someone try to run me over with their car...I literally rolled out of the way and missed the wheel by a few inches). A security guard would have been nice. I do not miss those days and I feel sad and scared for my friends still in the business.

 

[starry_solo]

Crazy!

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

Not so shocking it happened in Oakland.

 

[AustinTink]

I was a radio dj and had to be escorted to my car every night by a guard because of an overzealous fan who started stalking the station. Other djs had death threats. People have no idea the amount of craziness folks in the business of news/entertainment have to deal with. All it takes is one nut to take a life.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Another sad day when Excuses are used
instead of punishment to Explain away the destruction of a city town or business and lawlessness has become the norm/Commonplace.
RIP sir and Prayers for those family/friends and the rest of us…Shattered by his Senseless passing.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I seriously do not understand how awful people can be. That poor family!

 

[bcla]

I was a radio dj and had to be escorted to my car every night by a guard because of an overzealous fan who started stalking the station. Other djs had death threats. People have no idea the amount of craziness folks in the business of news/entertainment have to deal with. All it takes is one nut to take a life.

The primary issue in the area (and why guards have been used) has been theft of expensive equipment. The reports of what happened here were that an armed group ordered everyone to the ground at gunpoint, Kevin Yashita (a retired police officer) tried to intervene, and he was shot before the equipment was stolen.

He was an officer in Oakland, Hayward, and San Jose, but apprently retired as a sergeant in Colma, which is a small town known more for cemeteries than people in its area under two square miles. They have a living population of around 1200, but their tax base (in addition to the cemeteries) is primarily the various strip malls in town. Sergeant Nishita would have likely been familiar with dealing property crime.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1464680368347308034

 

[bcla]

Another sad day when Excuses are used
instead of punishment to Explain away the destruction of a city town or business and lawlessness has become the norm/Commonplace.
RIP sir and Prayers for those family/friends and the rest of us…Shattered by his Senseless passing.

I live in the area and visit Oakland often. It’s actually quite gentrified these days except maybe parts of East Oakland. Homes sell for over a million dollars. I’ve never been mugged nor the victim of any crime while in Oakland. I hear all these descriptions of the place that seem like a caricature, as if it’s a war zone. No doubt there’s crime, but most of it is gang on gang or property crimes. And the big flash mob thefts are organized where the perps have been identified as being from all over.

 

[Dead2009]

FWIW, I've never heard of TV crews having security guards, but apparently it's been common practice for a long time in the Bay Area.

All TV crews have some sort of protection, especially when covering events that revolve around violence or destruction. Besides, it's California and they dont care about anything so whoever shot the guard will probably get a slap on the wrist.

 

[JimMIA]

No doubt there’s crime, but most of it is gang on gang or property crimes.

The crime here, as you described it, was neither "gang on gang" nor "property crime."

When an armed group puts everybody on the ground at gunpoint to steal their equipment, that is called "armed robbery," and it's #3 on the list of violent felonies right behind murder and rape.

If they killed Sergeant NIshita during the commission of an armed robbery, in most of the US that is a felony murder and a capital offense in states which have the death penalty. I don't know what it is called in California.

 

[JimMIA]

In local news, we had an incidence of harmless property crime last night in Coral Gables. A couple of guys with a rental truck were harmlessly breaking into parked cars to steal whatever they could find. Police were called and responded, so the criminals tried to run over the officers with the truck.

One subject dead, the other is in custody. One officer suffered a minor leg injury jumping out of the way of the truck.

 

[sam_gordon]

All TV crews have some sort of protection, especially when covering events that revolve around violence or destruction. Besides, it's California and they dont care about anything so whoever shot the guard will probably get a slap on the wrist.

No they don't. Yes, if covering events where violence might be expected (like the protests the last couple of years), it wouldn't be unusual, but not ALL crews and not ALL the time.

 

[lisaviolet]

The crime here, as you described it, was neither "gang on gang" nor "property crime.

That is not what he was saying at all. It is not fair to take a snippet of his words and run with it.
What happened to the security guard was horrifying. As was the destruction of property.

Bcla was only sharing his firsthand knowledge of Oakland, since it is maligned.