first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2017-11-08 22:50:19.553500+00:00,2023-07-31 20:05:57.456518+00:00,"KAPP-KVEW reporter Maria Leal threatened with knife, had camera damaged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kapp-kvew-reporter-maria-leal-threatened-knife-had-camera-damaged/,2023-07-31 20:05:57.302308+00:00,,,(2019-01-14 16:03:00+00:00) Man sentenced after attack on Washington state reporters,"Assault, Equipment Damage","Knife-wielding man chases two tv reporters, city council candidate in Yakima (http://kimatv.com/news/local/knife-wielding-man-chases-two-tv-reporters-councilman-in-yakima) via KIMA, Knife-wielding man interrupts interview, chases reporters (http://raycomgroup.worldnow.com/story/36723797/knife-wielding-man-interrupts-interview-chases-reporters) via KAPP",,camera: count of 1,Maria Leal (KAPP-KVEW),,2017-10-30,False,Yakima,Washington (WA),46.60207,-120.5059,"
Maria Leal, a reporter for local TV station KAPP-KVEW, was chased and threatened by a knife-wielding man in Yakima, Washington, on Oct. 30, 2017. The man also broke Leal’s camera equipment.
At the time of the attack, Leal and another local TV reporter — Trisha McCauley, of KIMA Action News — were shooting B-roll footage in preparation for an interview with Jason White, a local city council candidate. While filming the footage, the two journalists noticed a man screaming at them from across the street.
“He crossed the street and got in our face, and he told us, ‘Get the fuck out of here, stop filming here,’” Leal said said.
The man left after Leal and McCauley began interviewing White, but later returned.
“The man began yelling again, and he threw a beer bottle at us, which landed near us and broke,” Leal said. “He kept demanding that we leave, and he threatened to kill us.”
She said the man drew a knife from his pocket, lifted it, and then ran towards the reporters and White.
Leal said that the man chased them for half a block and then returned to the interview site, where he threw their video equipment to the ground.
He then barricaded himself in a house, leading to a police stand-off that was resolved a few hours later when SWAT officers took him into custody, arresting him for second-degree assault.
Leal stayed on the scene to report live from the police stand-off.
Leal said that her camera was damaged when the man threw it on the ground and that she will have to film stories with her phone until the camera is fixed.
She still does not know why the man attacked her and McCauley. She said that the man may have mistakenly believed that the two reporters were filming him, but her cameras were nowhere near where he was standing.
“I’ve had other people approach me in that way, but they’ve never threatened me or attacked me like that,” she said.
Trisha McCauley, a reporter for local TV station KIMA, was chased and threatened by a knife-wielding man in Yakima, Washington, on Oct. 30, 2017. The man also broke McCauley's camera equipment.
McCauley and another local TV reporter — Maria Leal of KAPP and KVEW — were preparing for an interview with Jason White, a local city council candidate, when they noticed a man screaming at them from across the street.
“He was yelling, ‘Get the fuck out of here,’ and waving his arms, so I picked my camera up and moved closer to Maria,” McCauley said. “I felt safer in a group.”
McCauley said that when White drove up for the interview, the man approached him, but then suddenly left as they began the interview.
“We mic'd [White] up, and he was spelling his name for a mic check when I heard a bottle break,” McCauley said.
“We looked over, and the man had thrown a glass bottle that shattered on the sidewalk near us,” she said.
According to McCauley, the man continued demanding that she and Leal leave, so the reporters decided to pack up and continue the interview with White somewhere else.
McCauley said that she saw the man lift up his shirt and pull out a knife.
“We just took off running down the street,” she said, adding that the man chased her, Leal, and White for about half a block. The man then returned to the spot where McCauley and Leal had set up for the interview and began breaking their equipment.
“I turned around and saw him chuck my camera to the ground and break it, and there was a lot of cracking," McCauley said.
McCauley said that Leal called the police while the man hid in a nearby house. Police eventually took the man into custody after a police stand-off that lasted for several hours.
McCauley said that her TV station has sent her camera away to be checked for internal damage. In the meantime, she is sharing a camera with another reporter.