A man who was part of the film crew for the television reality series Cops was shot to death by a police officer while on location.
Omaha police were responding to a call about an armed robber at a fast-food restaurant, when two members of the Cops reality television series decided to join the police and record the confrontation.
One of the police officers fired what is called a friendly fire and accidentally hit one of the crew members. Unfortunately, the bullet went past his bulletproof vest and killed him, it was announced by Todd Schmaderer, Omaha Police Chief, on Wednesday. During the heated encounter, the robbery suspect was also killed by the police.
The armed robber turned out to only carry a pellet gun that looked very much like a real gun, confessed the witnesses and officers who were at the scene.
The Cops crew member who lost his life is Bryce Dion, 38. He lived in Boston and he is the first Cops crew member to be killed while filming police in action for the famous reality show. The robbery suspect who was also killed is 32-year-old Cortez Washington. He was released on parole from Missouri for a robbery conviction.
Mr. Schmaderer continued to say that the police and prosecutors viewed the video footage of the shooting and arrived at the conclusion that the police officers needed to open fire and that they had no choice but to do it. A grand jury will need to thoroughly investigate the footage and come to a conclusion.
Cops Executive Producer, Morgan Langley, released a statement in which he called Dion one of our best and continued to say that:
He did something that he loved and was passionate about. We’ve been very fortunate over the years; we’ve never had an incident like this. Now we’re dealing with it, and it’s a very sad day for us.
Cops started in 1989 on Fox and it is now shown on Spike network. The reality television series has filmed in around 140 U.S. cities.
The Omaha Police Chief has accepted to have the film crew film with his police officers in the name of transparency. He does regret his choice:
Personally, I will live with this forever. If I’d have known that this would happen, of course, I wouldn’t have done it.
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