OAKLAND — A security guard has died after he was shot while he protected a San Francisco Bay Area television news crew covering a smash-and-grab theft, part of a rash of organized retail crime in the region.
“We are devastated by the loss of security guard and our friend, Kevin Nishita. Our deepest sympathy goes to Kevin’s wife, his children, his family, and to all his friends and colleagues,” KRON-TV’s vice president and general manager, Jim Rose, said in a statement issued Saturday.
The former police officer was an armed guard for Star Protection Agency and provided security for many reporters in the region.
He was shot in the abdomen during an attempted robbery of KRON-TV’s camera equipment near downtown Oakland on Wednesday, police said.
The news crew was covering a recent robbery where a group of thieves broke in and stole from a clothing store.
A reward of $32,500 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in Nishita’s killing.
“This senseless loss of life is due to yet another violent criminal act in the Bay Area. We hope that offering a reward will help lead to the arrest of those responsible so they can face justice for this terrible tragedy,” Rose said.
The region has been struck by organized retail thefts in which bands of thieves, some carrying crowbars and hammers, break into high-end stores and snatch merchandise.
Similar thefts were reported in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.
At least eight thieves stormed a Home Depot store in Lakewood on Black Friday and grabbed hammers, crowbars and sledgehammers in the tool section before dashing off in a getaway vehicle, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Four people who may have participated in the Home Depot theft were later arrested in Beverly Hills after officers stopped two cars that were part of a caravan of vehicles driving around the city’s business district, police Lt. Giovanni Trejo said. A bystander called police after seeing that some of the vehicles did not display license plates, he said.
Meantime, police in Los Angeles arrested three people suspected of storming a designer clothing store on Melrose Place after stopping a vehicle and seeing clothes in plain view, said LAPD Officer Mike Lopez. He said more than 10 people ransacked another store on La Brea Avenue.
The thefts are believed to be part of sophisticated criminal networks that recruit people to steal merchandise in stores throughout the country and then sell it online. Experts and law enforcement officials say the thefts are ratcheting up as the holiday shopping season gets underway.
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“We are devastated by the loss of security guard and our friend, Kevin Nishita. Our deepest sympathy goes to Kevin’s wife, his children, his family, and to all his friends and colleagues,” KRON-TV’s vice president and general manager, Jim Rose, said in a statement issued Saturday.
If you ARE devastated then why do yo not use KRON-TV to bring these thugs all of these thugs to justice?
Oh No, You can’t do that. It would be racist by the Democrat Party’s standards or lack of.
absolutely unbelieveable.! this poor man doing his job to buy things for his family,dies at the hands of criminal thugs. the insanity that they are not using all avaiiable means to top this now. not only is it a crime of thievery now it is murder what next?
Devastated>>> YEA right.. These leftist hacks would have to BUY A SOUL< to be devastated…
THIS is what you get, when you let Democrats run things!
This is NUTS!
Democrats are DESTROYING America (and American Society)!
We (used to) have a Criminal Justice system to REMOVE criminals from (decent) Society.
NOW, we have Democrats (thanks to Soros funded District Attorneys across America) NOT prosecuting criminals – and that leads to MORE CRIME.
Rudy Giuliani’s “broken windows” policy (enforce ALL laws, including the “small things”) was the RIGHT thing – to control crime in New York.
Democrats learn NOTHING from SUCCESS. They snatch DEFEAT from the jaws of VICTORY!
TILL we start shooting BACK, to stop these flat out PILLAGING sprees, WE WON’T stop them.
The media has been a big part of this antisocial behavior, exonerating the perpetrators and bashing the defenders of life and property. Now it has come to the media who have supported the lax preosecutions in the San Francisco area!
Which is why i firmly believe, EVERY DAMN ONE OF these media hack outlets, NEED TO BE CRIMINALLY HELD LIABLE for the damage ALL of these riots, and looting sprees have caused…