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Rioting crowds stoked by the death of a black man at the apparent hand of a Minneapolis cop turned their rage on journalists early Saturday, attacking a Fox News crew outside the White House in a harrowing scene captured on video.
Fox News reporter Leland Vittert was reporting on protests in Lafayette Park at around 1 a.m. with two crewmembers when as many as a dozen masked protesters surrounded them, in footage caught by the Daily Caller. After a protester lunged at Vittert while he was reporting on air, the team made a beeline out of the park, with the hostile crowd in pursuit. Vittert and the crew were pushed and hit with water bottles, and a Fox News camera was broken when a member of the mob tried to grab it.
DRAMATIC PHOTOS: RIOTS BREAK OUT ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN REACTION TO DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD
“Imagine what it’s like to be a black man, feeling like this every f***ing day,” a woman is seen shouting at the crew as they hurried away, surrounded by a growing mob.
The news crew made it to a nearby police car and gave a report. Vittert and his crew were able to avoid serious injury.
POLICE CHIEFS ACROSS US CONDEMN OFFICERS INVOLVED IN GEORGE FLOYD DEATH
Hours earlier, the White House had been on lockdown as protests and riots escalated around the country. Fox News journalists and other members of the press were moved inside for a brief period with approximately a dozen reporters sheltered inside the West Wing.
The ongoing protests are in reaction to the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis May 25 after a white officer pinned him down by pressing his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck while Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired and on Friday was charged with murder. Three other police officers were also fired but have not been charged.
Large-scale rioting broke out Friday night across the U.S., from New York City and Washington, D.C., to Chicago; Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., and Dallas, to San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles and Portland, Ore.
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In Atlanta, demonstrators spray-painted and broke windows of CNN’s Atlanta headquarters. One protester climbed up onto the CNN building and waved a “black lives matter” sign as hundreds of other protesters pelted police with bottles.
