Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies arrested a public radio reporter as she covered protests that erupted outside a hospital where two sheriff’s deputies were being treated for gunshot wounds after they were critically wounded in an “ambush” attack Saturday evening.
The reporter, Josie Huang, of KPCC and LAist, was taken into custody outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and released hours later.
The incident comes a day after Sheriff’s deputies in riot gear arrived at a press conference being held by activists who have criticized the shooting by deputies of a cyclist in South L.A. earlier this month. When the press conference ended, the deputies order those attending, including reporters. to leave the area. The incident prompted calls for an investigation into the tactics.
The arrest at the hospital is also generating criticism.
Video posted by ABC7 showed multiple deputies pinning Huang on the ground and handcuffing her.
“We saw one of the radio reporters that was here at the scene, she had rushed up to the police line there to see what was going on when she was suddenly taken down by the deputies,” said ABC7 reporter Leanne Suter. “We are not exactly sure what happened there, why they tackled her and put her into a patrol car, but that happened.”
Demonstrators had gathered outside the hospital where two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were recovering from surgery. Both were critically wounded after being shot Saturday evening in Compton in what authorities described as an “ambush” that was captured on surveillance video.
The Sheriff’s Department’s relationship with the community has remained tense in the wake of several deputy-involved shootings, most recently the killing of Dijon Kizzee in Westmont, which sparked days of protests.
Last week, sheriff’s detectives shot and killed a man who they said opened fire on them as they served a search warrant in Compton.
The department said on Twitter that some of the protesters blocked entrances and exits of the hospital, but that could not be independently verified.
Deputies were trying to arrest a protester who refused to comply with an order to disperse, the department tweeted, when Huang “ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest.”
The department said that Huang did not identify herself as press and lacked “proper” press credentials. But other reporters at the scene said she was shouting her affiliation with the radio station and wearing her credentials, Megan Garvey, executive editor of KPCC, wrote on Twitter. As Huang was being put into the patrol car, she could be seen wearing a lanyard with a badge attached to it around her neck. Video from the scene also seems to show she identified herself as a reporter.
Huang was released Sunday morning. She said she would respond to the department’s claims that she didn’t have proper press credentials. “I have seen tweets and have thoughts and videos to share soon after a little rest,” she tweeted.
“NPR is appalled by the arrest of Josie Huang, a KPCC public radio reporter, who was performing her job last night — gathering facts to inform the American public,” the organization said in a statement released on Twitter. “The rights of journalists are protected by the First Amendment, and essential to an informed public and our Democracy.”
LAist said it had called for an apology from the department.
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
