Miami News Crew Attacked

A crew from WFOR in Miami was doing a story about crime on South Beach when the crew became a crime statistic.

WFOR Reporter Bobeth Yates and Photojournalist Ebenezer Mends were doing a story on the Miami Beach City Commission passing a resolution to stop alcohol sales past 2 a.m. in the city’s entertainment district as a way to curb unruly behavior.

Mends noticed a fight near 5 Street and Ocean Drive at around 9 p.m. Mends began recording, which prompted a group to come over and demand not to be filmed.

The station reports that one man placed his hands on Mends’ camera as more people started to show up. Yates intervened once there were about five people surrounding Mends, telling them to back away and that Mends would not stop recording.

Someone then knocked Mends’ camera down, temporarily causing it to blackout.

Yates dialed the police and she followed the people that harassed her and Mends.

Just a short time later, Mends’ camera was struck by two different people before the crowd began to disperse.

At some point during the incident, Yates and Mends had what they believe was alcohol thrown at them.

Both said they were ok after the incident.

“Just really shaken up. Been reporting for a very long time, don’t want to date myself, but about 20 years, and I’ve never been attacked like this on a story,” Yates recalled. “The ironic part was we were actually covering crime on South Beach.”

Here’s the story from WFOR.