Reporter Remains Calm As Police Shootout Breaks Out Behind Him

A reporter in the US kept his cool as a police shootout broke out behind him on live TV. Watch here:

Jeff McAdam was reporting from outside the San Diego Convention Center for FOX 5 San Diego last night (Monday 1 March) at around 7pm when shots could be heard in the background.

Remaining calm, Jeff continued with his report about the cancellation of Comic-Con, intermittently glancing towards the gunfire.

Quickly realising Comic-Con could wait for the time being, he said: "There's something going on here in the distance.

"I think we have an officer-involved shooting."

He continued: "There's a shooting going on right now between an officer and a car that he had just pulled over.

"Forgive us for getting out of the story that we were covering, we don't know a lot about what's going on right now or how much we want to cover it, given that we don't know the details."

Feeding back to his team, Jeff confirmed that he was safe.

He said: "We're a block away here, just on the other side of the convention centre.

"We saw this officer pull over the car about two minutes before our live hit.

"We are a safe distance away and we're gonna kind of stay back as much as we possibly can... We did see an officers back pedalling as he fired off a couple of shots and retreated.

"We can see him standing about 80 feet behind his patrol car right now, and we don't know where the suspect might be, so Phil we are going to send it back to you so we can get a safe distance away, seeing as how we don't know where this potential suspect might be."

FOX 5 San Diego

Neither the gunman nor the officer were injured in the shootout, but a bystander was hit in the bum by a stray bullet; fortunately for him, his glasses case in his back pocket took the hit.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, police captain Rich Freedman said: "[It's] Probably the worst nightmare to have somebody basically just walk out of the car and start firing at you.

"We're lucky the officer wasn't hurt, we're very fortunate, obviously, that the bystander wasn't hurt, and that the suspect ... was taken into custody without any further incident, and that he wasn't hurt."

The shootout took place after police pulled over the 29-year-old driver for running a red light, and after noticing that he seemed impaired, he was asked to step out of the vehicle.

Freedman said: "As the (man) exited the vehicle, the officer immediately saw that the suspect reached and grabbed a weapon from his person, and began immediately firing at the officer.

"The officer quickly drew his weapon and returned fire, and the two engaged in a gun battle for a few seconds."

Freedman said the gunman is expected to face several charges, including attempted murder.

Topics: Police, US News, crime

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey