[Ammi]

OMAHA — The Omaha police chief said Wednesday that the fatal shooting of a crew member filming the television show “Cops” by one of his officers was an “unfortunate incident” and that it appeared that the three officers involved had acted professionally.

Police officers responded to a report of a robbery at a Wendy’s restaurant in Omaha on Tuesday night with two crew members from the reality television show riding in the back seat of their patrol car for a night of filming. After a standoff with a suspect inside the fast-food restaurant, both the robbery suspect and a sound supervisor for the show, Bryce Dion, were killed by police gunfire.

Officials said that Mr. Dion, 38, was accidentally shot when officers opened fire on the robbery suspect, who they believed had fired at them. The officers later found that the suspect, Cortez Washington, 32, had shot a pellet gun, not a real firearm, the Omaha police said.

“I can tell you that nobody wanted Bryce to get hurt. Nobody wanted anybody to get hurt,” Chief Todd Schmaderer said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. “Police work is very dangerous and very chaotic. When you’re reporting police work and riding along with us, unfortunately, you subject yourself to that same level of violence that Omaha police officers do every day.”

After reviewing footage from inside the restaurant, Chief Schmaderer said it appeared that the three officers who fired their weapons had followed protocol.

The three officers have been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is being investigated, Chief Schmaderer said. He identified the officers as Darren Cunningham, 37; Brooks Riley, 35; and Jason Wilhelm, 39.

Mr. Dion’s death was the first time a crew member had been killed during the filming of “Cops,” a reality television show that first aired in 1989 and has filmed more than 900 episodes. Mr. Dion, who had worked on the show for seven years, was wearing a protective vest, but he was hit in an opening near his left arm, the police said.

The executive producers of the television show, John Langley and his son, Morgan, appeared alongside the police chief at the news conference, calling the shooting a “tragic event.” They said that the officers in Omaha were a professional police department and that the shooting should not reflect negatively on the city.

Around 9:20 p.m. on Tuesday, the police said, Officer Cunningham called for backup for a robbery in progress at the Wendy’s restaurant. The two other officers arrived, along with the “Cops” film crew, and three witnesses inside the restaurant said they saw Mr. Washington discharge a handgun at two of the officers, Chief Schmaderer said. The officers returned fire and shot Mr. Washington multiple times before he collapsed in the parking lot.

Mr. Dion was shot once when the suspect began to exit the building and the officers fired at him, Chief Schmaderer said. Mr. Dion had become stuck in the vestibule and collapsed near the doorway. When the officers recovered the suspect’s weapon, they saw that it was not a real handgun. Based on the video footage from the restaurant, the police chief said the officers had no choice but to act in the manner that they did.

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Asked by a reporter whether the officers were showing off for the cameras, Chief Schmaderer said that was “absolutely ridiculous” and that the shots fired by the suspect sounded real. He noted that Mr. Washington had a “lengthy criminal history” and was on parole for a previous robbery in Missouri.

On Wednesday morning, 13 bullet holes riddled the entryway to the Wendy’s at 43rd and Dodge Streets in Omaha. Curtis Johnson, a manager at a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken, said he had seen the police cars fly past the store on Tuesday night. That part of town does not have a reputation for violence, Mr. Johnson said, but he added that the area appeared to be getting worse. “I didn’t think that many robberies happened here, that it was that violent here,” he said. “I guess I was wrong, though.”

Known for its “Bad Boys” theme song, “Cops” was among the first reality television shows. Before Tuesday night, the most serious injury to a crew member while filming happened in a 2009 car accident, but that person recovered and returned to the show, producers said.

Last year, the show moved from the Fox network to the cable channel Spike TV, a division of Viacom Media Networks.

Earlier this summer, the Omaha Police Department said it had agreed to allow filming for the show in an attempt to improve relations with community members



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/us...cops.html?_r=0

[arista]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...s-tv-show-crew


Bad Boy Bad Boys
no Sloppy American Cops
Trigger Happy

[michael21]

yes i watch this show on freeview the do a good job most days